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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27598109">The Red Avatar</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swingdelusion/pseuds/Swingdelusion'>Swingdelusion</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: Legend of Korra</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Anthology, Exploration of Concepts unexplained in the show, F/M, I'll get back to it, Philosophy (Avatar), Politics (Avatar), Short Chapters, Will be updated as they appear - Freeform, but for now it's on hiatus while I finish up a very big project</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 00:33:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>20,499</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27598109</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swingdelusion/pseuds/Swingdelusion</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Korra was kidnapped and raised by Zaheer and his group?</p><p>I like Korra a lot and respect how it tried to tackle a lot of big ideas but I don't think it really did any of them well. I'm going to try and rewrite Korra through the lens of hindsight and attempt to improve on a bunch of ideas. For example, I want to convey the actual strengths and weaknesses of each philosophy the show tackles without attempting to attack a person's character as a solution to their ideas. This means I want a deeper explanation of Amon's ideas, and Zaheer is an actual anarchist and not a weird chaos demon man. I don't believe I can live up to the action scenes of the series so in its place I want to try an anthology format less focused on Korra and more on the changing world and vast cast of characters. Because of the anthology format, I want to have a much shorter chapter than I usually write. Ideally, they will all be around 1000 words each but I can't promise anything. I also want to use this cast of characters to explore my own views and ideas on different political and spiritual ideas. I have a few written already but I might be slow to release them because I want to release them in order instead of jumping around.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Amon &amp; Ming-Hua (Avatar), Baatar Sr./Suyin Beifong, Ghazan &amp; Zaheer (Avatar), Ghazan/Ming-Hua (Avatar), Iroh &amp; Zaheer (Avatar), Korra &amp; Ming-Hua (Avatar), Korra &amp; P'li (Avatar), Ming-Hua &amp; Zaheer (Avatar), Noatak &amp; Varrick (Avatar), P'Li &amp; Zaheer (Avatar), P'li/Zaheer (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. A New Age</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I'm not really happy with this chapter and have debated deleting it. Instead, I'll just leave a disclaimer here. You don't need to read it, it's just Zaheer and gang kidnapping Korra. I think the second chapter is a little more surface-level than I wanted but is a way better look at the direction I want to go with this story.</p><p>Arcs;</p><p>1-4: Early Years<br/>5-14: Learning Waterbending<br/>15-18: Ferry to the Fire Nation<br/>19+: Firebending Training</p>
    </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Characters;</p><p>Korra: Newest Avatar.</p><p>Zaheer: The current face of the Red Lotus and a spiritual leader to all in its ranks. He cannot bend, but he is gifted in martial arts. He believes that freedom will aid the world.</p><p>P'Li: A combustion bender, Red Lotus revolutionary, and lover of Zaheer. She has no passion for the revolution, but she has faith that it will lead the world to a better place.</p><p>Ghazan: A lavabender and revolutionary member of the Red Lotus. He is the most relaxed of the group.</p><p>Ming-Hua: Red Lotus revolutionary and powerful waterbender who lost her arms.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It took an impressive amount of time and effort to work his way into the personal guard of the newest Avatar, and even then he was never alone with her. There was always someone on hand, luckily he had quite a few sympathizers and a few close friends that could help him.</p><p>The white lotus was made up of good people acting to the best of their abilities but their ideas of equality stopped too short. They allowed tyrants throughout all of history to stay on their thrones and acted surprised when the person they allowed to gain power abused it to the detriment of others.</p><p>They may have acted to stop Ozai but their action came too late and because of them the air nation had all but died out. The blame wasn’t fully theirs but part of the blood was on their hands.</p><p>At the end of Aang’s life warlords began to pop up in the earth kingdom claiming large portions of land for themselves with one even declaring his own nation independent from the queen.</p><p>Most recently they allowed the new Earth Queen to push the boundaries of her power without question. She may not have been committing outright genocide but if that was where they draw the line then they hadn’t learned anything.</p><p>Sozen didn’t start with genocide, he started with power. The more powerful he became the more sure he was that he wanted to ‘spread his prosperity’.</p><p>Those with power will misuse it, a lesson he had taken to heart from studying some of the ancient air nomad’s greatest philosophical works. </p><p>Not guru Laghima but another less known philosopher who had built on his ideas. Guru Kalden was the foremost thinker of her age and an outspoken voice against the fire nation’s expansionist ideals before being burnt to a crisp by Sozen.</p><p>As Zaheer gazed deep into the eyes of the baby he was to guard he felt a sorrow come over him. He didn’t want to have to kill anyone, much less a child, even more, less in such a brutal manner.</p><p>Still, in the words of the avatar herself, selfless duty calls you to sacrifice your own spiritual needs and do whatever it takes to protect the world. His actions would save the world even if the tyrants and royalists would suggest otherwise.</p><p>A familiar hand rested on his shoulder.</p><p>“Are you really sure you can do this because if not…”</p><p>Zaheer looked up at his partner with a long face. His face twitched.</p><p>“I have to, it’s the only way to set the world straight. Right?” He turned to each of his companions for an answer to his moral question.</p><p>First P’Li who turned her three eyes from his hopeful gaze. Ghazan met his gaze with a cold and silent stare. Ming-Hua just shrugged her stubs without a care in the world.</p><p>None of them said a word. Of course, they didn’t. None of them wanted to poison a child any more than he did.</p><p>Just then a familiar figure burst into the nursery.</p><p>“What are you doing!” Cried Unaraq, a member of the white lotus just like them. His eyes were locked on the vial of mercury in Zaheer’s hand.</p><p>“You’re just going to kill her? We need her alive!”</p><p>“We can’t just leave her in the hands of the white lotus, she’ll become a pawn of destiny until she’s is no longer useful and discarded. We’re saving her from that fate.”</p><p>“Listen, I have no love for my brother or his kid so trust me when I say this is a bad move. You really want to end the cycle. I suspect there is another way. If you raise her far from the white lotus she’ll grow up without their influence. Show her how bad the world is and when the time comes to present your death solution. If your plan is really good she’ll do it without weighing on your conscience, if not you can finish the job yourselves.”</p><p>Zaheer wasn’t entirely convinced of his reasoning but as his eyes drifted to the child once more a thought flew through his mind. Without thinking the words escaped his lips.</p><p>“Selfless duty huh...perhaps me and her aren’t so different.” As he thought this it suddenly came to him. This must have been why he was having so much trouble. At one point he had been where this baby was and as it stood their paths would lead them to give up their lives.</p><p>“I’ve made up my mind. We’re taking the girl and leaving. Unaraq, do you know anywhere we’ll be safe.”</p><p>P'Li let out a shallow breath she had been holding in, and Ming barely reacted to this change of plans. Ghazan however had different plans.</p><p>“But we can’t just…” he began to protest.</p><p>“If you disagree with this move I won’t stop you.” He handed him the mercury without any hesitation.</p><p>Ghazan’s eyes shifted between the various elements, deciding what to do. Finally, he let out a sigh.</p><p>“I’ll back your play, but we need to be quick. Unless Unalaq has decided to join us we can only really rely on Ming’s bending here.” Ghazan said.</p><p>“I can still combustion bend here!” P’Li protested.</p><p>“You know you’re combustion bending is as useless during a snowstorm as using your hands to paddle an iceberg to the earth kingdom.” Ming chuckled.</p><p>P’Li clearly wanted to retort but bit her lip. She was never able to match Ming’s insult game.</p><p>They turned to Unalaq who had spent the time thinking.</p><p>“Stay out of the north and south poles. Stay away from republic city. I’d also stay out of the capital of the fire nation, the previous fire lord and one of the highest-ranking members of the white lotus is there. Your best bet would be traveling the earth kingdom and more rural parts of the fire nation.”</p><p>Zaheer nodded in agreement “I’ll keep her away from those spots until I’m sure she believes in our cause.”</p><p>“Now get out of here quickly!” Unalaq ran out of the tent.</p><p>They looked between each other.</p><p>“I want to thank you for your help.” Said Zaheer to the group.</p><p>P’Li smiled and gave him a long kiss. “You know I’d go anywhere with you.”</p><p>“You guys are my family, there’s no way I’d let you face this alone.” Said Ghazan with renewed vigor pouring the poison onto the floor.</p><p>Ming smiled and gave a raspy chuckle. “It wasn’t the white lotus who saved me back when I was a kid, it was you guys. I owe you my life...and I know you fools would get killed without my help.”</p><p>Zaheer smiled. “You’re probably right.”</p><p>“Let’s get going then.” She said.</p><p>Zaheer grabbed the baby avatar while Ming summoned up many arms of water from the ground. Ghazan pulled a couple of pebbles out of his pocket, spinning them until they were molten.</p><p>They barely made it a few meters from the tent before someone called after them. It felt like it only took a second for the other lotus members to take chase.</p><p>It looked like this was going to be a difficult escape.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. A New You</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Zaheer finds himself in crisis and seeks guidance from the spirits for help.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Characters;</p><p>Korra: Newest Avatar kidnapped at a young age by a group of revolutionaries called the Red Lotus.</p><p>Zaheer: The current face of the Red Lotus and a spiritual leader to all in its ranks. He cannot bend, but he is gifted in martial arts. He believes that freedom will aid the world.</p><p>P'Li: A combustion bender, Red Lotus revolutionary, and lover of Zaheer. She has no passion for the revolution, but she has faith that it will lead the world to a better place.</p><p>Ghazan: A lavabender and revolutionary member of the Red Lotus. He is the most relaxed of the group.</p><p>Ming-Hua: Red Lotus revolutionary and powerful waterbender who lost her arms.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“You were weak Zaheer.” Pointed out, Ming. “You were given an option to end this cycle and you didn’t.”</p><p>What struck him was how calm they were about his. He had expected Ming and Ghazan to be angry about this, but they seemed to want a genuine answer to why he did it.</p><p>“We could kill her at any time should we change our mind but I believe an even more important path has opened to us. We have the ability to show the Avatar a picture of the world unclouded by the White Lotus and the powerful, we can make a difference in the world.”</p><p>Ming sighed and looked away, “Fine, but if she betrays us I’ll personally see to it there is no more Avatar after herl.” She leaned in threateningly to the baby.</p><p>The baby grabbed her nose and laughed to Ming’s immense disappointment.</p><p>“I need to meditate on what this new path means for us.”</p><p>“I’ll watch over you, you guys can get some sleep.” Chimed in P’Li.</p><p>Zaheer gave her a smile before entering the spirit world. </p><p>He felt the rush of entering the spirit world but continued to meditate as he spoke to himself.</p><p>“Please if anyone is here, I need help.”</p><p>“It is rare I get another visitor here. What’s your name stranger?”</p><p>Zaheer opened his eyes and looked around to see a place he had never been before. A grove filled with all manner of spirits. How had he even ended up here? What was even more shocking was the identity of the man pouring him tea.</p><p>“You’re Grand Lotus Iroh!”</p><p>“There’s no need for titles here, we're not in a war meeting or a White Lotus lodge.”</p><p>“I’m sorry sir, it’s just that you’re one of my heroes. You led the charge in retaking Ba Sing Se from the fire nation! You helped fire lord Zuko with his reforms to change the fire nation! In the tales from older members, I hear nothing but the kindness you employ setting them on a better path! You’re…’</p><p>“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m just an old man who likes tea, I don’t need to be glorified or lionized for the most basic human emotions.”</p><p>“Would...Would it be alright if I asked you a question?”</p><p>“Of course. Have some tea.” the old man poured him some tea from his kettle and then himself.</p><p>“Recently I've been struggling with the White Lotus’ ideas. They sat by and let monsters grab power. Sozen, Ozai, The earth Queen, Gan Li, any of the other warlords.”</p><p>“You are thinking about this in a very detached way. It’s easy to point out as a free man that these leaders were and are bad but it’s important to look at things in context. These people are not monsters, they don’t want to tear the world apart or kill most people. These are people with misguided ideas who have led them to radical extremes for the sake of what they believe to be doing the most good. My brother was raised on propaganda and believed himself to simply be acting in the best interest of his people out of a sense of national pride, my grandfather was a man who wanted the best possible world for the only people he had known his whole life. I can’t defend their atrocities but it is important to know that these are real people, not monsters or insane demons. This can happen to anyone and this can happen again.”</p><p>“I understand, but what about the White Lotus, surely you can’t defend inaction?”</p><p>“Context is important. If you put a toad-frog in hot water it will jump out, but if you put a toad-frog in temperate water and gradually heat it up it will stay in the water and boil alive. It’s easy to point out that people should have had a revolted against the fire lord but there was no real-time to do it. There needed to be a real successor to the throne people would accept for the revolution to mean anything, and history needed to know it wasn’t more pointless bloodshed. So I and my colleagues practiced neutral jing. Much like you I often wonder if perhaps we did wait too long. But I don’t think the solution is more violence.”</p><p>Zaheer took a deep breath. “I want an end to world leaders.”</p><p>“That isn’t a goal, it is a result. You don't want an end to world leaders for leader's sake you think eliminating the leaders will accomplish something.”</p><p>“I want a world built on the kindness of one’s fellow man free of the so-called necessary evils. I want a world without money, greed, and power.”</p><p>“I think that is a very admirable goal by itself, however, I don’t think you came here because of that. </p><p>“How did you know?”</p><p>“You might not be able to see it but to me, you seem as filled with boiling water as this teapot.”</p><p>“I was planning on ending the Avatar so that there is no symbol of ultimate truth to put down the revolution when it comes but I don’t think that’s correct anymore. So I stole her and now I’m not sure.”</p><p>Iroh seemed very surprised at this. “You sound crazy.”</p><p>“Perhaps this was a mistake.” Began Zaheer before Iroh stopped him with a hand.</p><p>He took a sip of tea while his hand was in the air. “Ending the cycle of the Avatar will not help the world, if anything it will throw it even further out of balance.”</p><p>“I don’t understand, the organization always mentions balance but no one ever explains it. What good is balance to the starving prisoners of the earth queen? What good is balanced to the nearly extinct air nation? Vague philosophies will not fix the world or its problems.”</p><p>“I agree. The problem with philosophy is it is often pointless on the grand scale. But this does not mean it is always pointless. Philosophy to me is the study of how to help people find and understand themselves.”</p><p>“Is there any advice you can give me on achieving this new world then?”</p><p>“You don’t need to focus on changing the world yet. A time will come for an age of ideals where ideas have the power to shape the course of human history but it isn’t here yet.” Iroh said, taking another sip of his tea.</p><p>“The paradise you dream of is impossible, nothing ever works out perfectly. But I have found if you treat the world as if it already is your paradise and show your fellow man the greatest kindness whenever possible you will make the world a better place.”</p><p>Zaheer took the first sip of his tea.</p><p>“This is pretty good.”</p><p>“Thank you, I made it myself, with a little help from the spirits of course.” He reached over and rubbed a pumpkin looking spirit scratching it and causing it to roll around like a cat-dog.</p><p>“Thank you for the advice. Will I be able to reach you again if I have more trouble?”</p><p>“Who knows? The spirit world is constantly shifting, I may become the spirit world, or I could phase out of existence for years.”</p><p>“Regardless, I wanted to thank you for everything you’ve done.”</p><p>“Don’t get me wrong I appreciate your thanks but I haven’t done anything so admirable as to deserve it.”</p><p>“Goodbye, sir.”</p><p>“Perhaps we'll meet again in time.” Mused Iroh as the man disappeared.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Still a Zaheer chapter. This is a companion chapter to the previous one and is the only other chapter I currently have which can be easily placed on a timeline in the beginning. Korra is still a baby here. The exact age is something I'd like to keep ambiguous because it's old enough not to know what going on and young enough to not require being breastfed which in my mind probably exists but I'm not an expert in developmental psychology so the best answer here is to leave it vague.</p><p>Zaheer meets Iroh is a really interesting concept that I wanted to portray but I wasn't sure where to put it originally. I'm going to change Zhaeer's character from the show so I thought the best way to do that has him become influenced by the humanist philosophy of Iroh and incorporate it into a more humanist-anarchism. My goal with this is that I'll be able to have a chapter or two in the future where Zaheer actually talks to the people he wanted to liberate.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Value of Labor</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>After bloodbending his father Noatak secures travel away from the north pole to the earth kingdom. While waiting he meets an unusual man.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Characters;</p><p>Noatak: A bloodbender and son of a crime boss. He wants to understand the nature of power and wants to leave his home to escape his emotionally abusive father. He has left behind a brother who he doesn't believe he can care for. </p><p>Varrick: Eccentric immoral genius.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The sheets of ice cracked and laughed as he treads through deep snow to reach a rickety shack in the middle of nowhere. </p><p>“I need to leave the water tribe, preferably as quickly as you can.”</p><p>“Name.”</p><p>“Noatak, I live in this tribe.”</p><p>“You got the yuan for it?”</p><p>He tossed a light sack on the table for the woman to examine.</p><p>“Is that enough to cover it?”</p><p>“Oh sure, it’ll cover the trip just fine but I and my crew like to drink. And doubt you’d know this being a kid, but when adults drink they tend to talk a lot. Right now I’ve got no reason to keep quiet about you showing up on board but perhaps if this hand were just a bit heavier…” He shook the hand with money his life savings in.</p><p>Noatak sighed, “I’m sorry that’s all I’ve got.”</p><p>“Then I’ll enjoy having a nice long chat with some friends.” She smiled sinisterly but Noatok didn’t react. He knew these three people posed no threat, even if they could bend.</p><p>“We leave at the crack of dawn. Go wait over there with your shipmate until we’re ready to leave.”</p><p>The leader pointed to a noble sitting cross-legged on top of the cargo. He walked over to greet him.</p><p>“Hello, I’m Noatak.”</p><p>“Varrick, nice to meet you!”</p><p>“So why are you headed to the earth kingdom?”</p><p>“The love of my life is there. A beautiful waterbender named Atiqtalik. We were dating for a while back in the southern tribe before we broke up. Recently I’ve been getting this feeling that she wanted to get back together with me so I’m heading there to see her myself.”</p><p>Noatak withdrew from him a little bit, that was a lot to take in.</p><p>“So wait, you don’t actually know if she wants to get back together?”</p><p>“She better do more than want it. If she isn’t on her knees begging then I’m not taking her back.”</p><p>He continued to be baffled by this man’s answers.</p><p>“Wait, why was that what I’m focusing on? How do you even know she’s in the earth kingdom?”</p><p>“Oh she’s there, I can sense it.”</p><p>“And if she’s not?!”</p><p>“I assure you she is, but if she’s too scared to come and find me then I guess I’ll join the circus or something, I don't know.”</p><p>“You don’t have a plan?”</p><p>“I don’t need a plan. If life doesn’t work out as I need it to, I can always fall back to my ‘family’ in the southern tribe. They’ve got swelling pockets just waiting to bail me out. What you should be worried about is yourself.”</p><p>Something about the way he said family scared him. He placed no emphasis on the word but the emptiness in which he said it said shivers down his spine.</p><p>“What do mean by that?”</p><p>“I’m a genius of the highest order, I’m a talented seal hunter, and I'm a fighter with a heart of gold. How does that sound?”</p><p>“What are you talking about, I can barely keep up with what you're saying.”</p><p>“That’s exactly what I was saying earlier. I move fast enough to keep up and even pass the world on foot, but you're a bit slow. I was just practicing my tragic backstory for when I’m a fabulously wealthy businessman and you couldn’t even figure that out.”</p><p>“Believe me I’m able to handle myself a lot better than you!”</p><p>“Oh really?” He challenged.</p><p>“Yeah!” Noatak shouted.</p><p>“I think I’ve got you figured out.” Said Varrick, calmer than he had been throughout their encounter.</p><p>Noatak was taken aback by the coldness in his voice.</p><p>“What do you…” Varrick flashed him an evil smile. “ARREST THEM!”.</p><p>“They’re with the cops! Stop them before they have time to bend!”</p><p>Noatak turned around to find the smugglers reaching for their weapons and charging him.</p><p>“No stop I don’t want to hurt any…” The smallest of them was on top of him swinging a small knife around as he narrowly avoided each attack.</p><p>He managed to pull water from the ice and freeze the man’s feet to the ground, sticking him in place only to be assaulted by the second smallest.</p><p>This man bent a blast of ice at him which came an inch from blowing his ear off before he deflected it into the ceiling creating a long icicle.</p><p>The second man dodged to the side as the largest of them, the woman who took his money, ran forward. She uppercut barely avoided his jaw with both hands on a small hammer.</p><p>He tried to jump back but found himself at the wall. Without anywhere the go the smallest had picked free of his ice and jumped at him. Behind him, the two waterbenders in red garb backed him up with a barrage of icicles.</p><p>He felt every muscle in his body tighten as he created an ice wall between him and his attackers which cracked under the stream of small, constant ice projectiles and fell away.</p><p>Finally, he found himself without an option. It was either use his gift to dominate them now or be beaten bloody and possibly killed. </p><p>He could trust himself not to kill them but he couldn’t trust them to do the same. Which left him with one option.</p><p>He took a strong stance and stretched out his hands as his father had taught him. He reached out to everyone behind the cracking sheet of ice. First, the small man whose dagger had pierced the wall. Then, the waterbender behind him. And finally, the large woman in the back of the room pulling back one arm and pushing forward another to send a new barrage of ice at him.</p><p>They all froze in place at once. Their ice fell onto the floor below.</p><p>“What is this?” The woman’s look of horror conveyed it all. This was what his brother had been so afraid of becoming. He had made a split-second decision that he was more valuable than them.</p><p>He held them in place not knowing what he could actually do anymore. He had lost his ride and possibly started a grudge with The Red Monsoons.</p><p>“Amazing! Is that bloodbending?” Varrick had apparently managed to sneak past him and was poking at the frozen smugglers.</p><p>“You aren’t scared of it?” Noatak asked in shock.</p><p>“Of course I am, but I’m not the one being bent.” He reached into their pockets and removed his sack of yuans he had given them earlier.</p><p>“Hey, that’s mine.”<br/>
“I know that I’m diving up the loot.”</p><p>“My cut?”</p><p>“For the job we just did. I already dug through their cargo for anything of special value and took it. I’m making sure I got everything of value so I can divide this equally.”</p><p>Noatak couldn’t deal with Varrick and bloodbend, so he lowered his hands down and knocked the three out.</p><p>“We were doing a job?”</p><p>“Yeah, you didn’t hear me say ARREST THEM out loud. I thought it was pretty obvious.”</p><p>“But I’m not a cop, and aren’t they going to hunt us down.”</p><p>“You’ll be fine as long as you used a fake name.”</p><p>“But I didn’t use one!?”</p><p>“Well, why didn’t you? This is really on you.”</p><p>“Because I didn’t know I was going to be attacking them!”</p><p>“Well, that’s kind of important! That’s why I sent you a telepathic message as you walked in to make sure you didn’t use a real name.”</p><p>“You don’t have telepathy.”<br/>
“Oh I get it, you must not be gifted with the art of telepathy like I am.”</p><p>“No one is gifted with that!”</p><p>“Says you.” He chuckled and dumped some coins from Noatok’s bag into his hand.</p><p>“It’s been good working with you. Anyway, here’s your cut.”</p><p>Varrick handed him a quarter of the coins from his own bag.</p><p>He stared down in disbelief at his supposed reward for risking his life in his hand, and when he looked up again the man was gone.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Not the most relevant title but I liked it better than the alternatives I came up with. Those would be The Meeting (which I thought was too generic and could probably be used later to better effect) and Accident of birth (which made sense in an earlier idea). The goal is to bring up the idea of labor in a reader's mind as a prelude to actual communist theory.  Noatak did all the work and walked out with all the consequences and less money because he was taken advantage of.</p><p>This is the first of the anthology idea I'd like to explore with the series. As I have it now we'll have two-three mini-arc with baby Korra training and learning the elements before arriving in Republic City. Until we get there won't be too many characters to follow but I do want to explore interesting dynamics and ideas when I have them.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. The Exile</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A month or so after the previous chapter Noatak meets an exile of two nations who gives him an impassioned lecture on the self-destructive nature of capitalism.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Characters;</p><p>Noatak: A bloodbender and son of a crime boss. He is being hunted by the Red Monsoon gang and wants to understand power.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Before answering, he took a long sip of water.</p><p>“Yeah,” he couldn’t believe he had to clarify why they were here. This wasn’t even the first time this guy had found him.</p><p>“Good, you’ve saved us some time then. My name is Hao, but that won’t matter in a few minutes.” He flashed a cocky grin and threw a fireball from his hip.</p><p>Noatak easily dodged out of the way as his buddy bent water to shield him from an ice punch, only to find the shield freezing as well.</p><p>With his hand frozen inside Noatak raised his leg and kicked the ice, melting it and refreezing it as projectiles pelting the two gangsters.</p><p>The waterbender deflected the ice. The firebender wearing a stetzin who had challenged him took the full brunt of the attack. He folded like a used squeaky toy.</p><p>His father had taught him to always be aggressive and decisive in a fight. “If you aren’t attacking, you’re letting your opponent attack you. If you aren't finishing your opponent, you're letting them finish you.” </p><p>Of course, despite all his talk, even he hadn’t measured up to the Avatar. Even worse, Aang had proven him wrong on both accounts.</p><p>As he saw the firebender was sprawled out before him, he decided to ignore him and focus on the waterbender instead.</p><p>It took mere seconds to deal with him. He might have been a waterbender, but he hadn’t been trained since birth.</p><p>With that, he returned to his water.</p><p>“Why did those people attack you?” Noatak turned to find an old balding woman in a brown coat.</p><p>“Oh uh, sorry, who are you?”</p><p>“Damnit!” The bartender exclaimed in frustration.</p><p>“Stop coming here! If any of the Di Lee ever pass through here, it'll be me headed for Laogi."</p><p>“Those children will not come here. The only thing they care about is following the Queen’s orders.”</p><p>“They will if you keep shouting stuff like that out loud!”</p><p>“Let them come. What are they gonna do? Exile me again?”</p><p>“They’ll probably just kill you.” He walked away to give a drunk customer a refill. “Put you out my misery for sure.” He added afterward very quietly.</p><p>“You were exiled!? For what?”</p><p>She frowned. “Depends on which nation you are talking about.”</p><p>“You were banned from more than one?”</p><p>“I ‘wrote an essay detailing two hundred and fifty-seven pages of slander about the most prominent spiritual leaders of the northern water tribe’.” As if she were reciting legal documents.</p><p>“I’m from there, and I’ve never heard of anyone being kicked out before.”</p><p>“Well, my original punishment was just to have my essays collected and destroyed. Being young, I did not appreciate that, so I may have responded in kind with some of their spiritual texts.”</p><p>“Wait! You were the one behind the flooding of the libraries.” Noatak was amazed. </p><p>He had heard the older members of the tribe talking about how expansive their spiritual texts had once been. But due to some incident that they didn’t talk about, most of them had been destroyed. </p><p>Apparently, they were the reason waterbenders were nowhere near as good at bending as they once were. Although Noatak had always assumed they were simply spouting nonsense about their times like old people tended to do.</p><p>“They did not take it as well as you just did. I was exiled from the tribe and my family.”</p><p>“But then you were also exiled from Ba Sing Se?”</p><p>“No, the Earth Kingdom in general. But what the Queen does not know will continue to not hurt her, despite her claims to the contrary.”</p><p>“So what did you do to get her mad. There aren’t any spiritual leaders to attack in the earth kingdom that I know of.”</p><p>“But there are the most ridiculously poor living conditions I have ever seen. People like that guy," she pointed to the firebender on the ground, "make more money by hunting humans for wealthier people and eats better than the family who grew the food. Which brings me back to my original question, why did those people attack you?”</p><p>“Some hyperactive idiot decided I was his partner in crime and got a few of the Red Monsoons to attack me. I beat them but he took something which was apparently very important to them and they’ve been after me ever since.”</p><p>She got up from her seat and examined the firebenders' knocked out body until her eyes rested on his shoes.</p><p>“Interesting boots he’s got here.” She commented eyeing them up and down.</p><p>“...Yeah, I guess.”</p><p>“You never read any of the Ba Sing Se poverty essays right?”</p><p>“No, I haven’t.”</p><p>“Good, keep it that way as long as you can. Frankly, they are very boring.”</p><p>“Didn’t you say you wrote some?” He asked, confused.</p><p>“Yeah, and?"</p><p>"Why don't you want me to read them?"</p><p>"What do you think reading an essay will do? You will not suddenly be able to help the earth kingdom even if they are right. There are very few people in the world who could actually fix the system, and I can guarantee you they will never read them.” She said.</p><p>“So you don’t think I should inform myself. I get that it's bad, but one day I might be able to convince someone with the power to change things.”</p><p>“So you think you’ll be able to change someone’s mind by talking to them? You think you’ll be able to stick to your gut and push past all the false ideas pushed by opposing parties?” </p><p>“Well...yeah.”</p><p>“Then you are as big an idiot as the queen herself.”</p><p>“What! No! I’m nothing like that crazy hag!” He felt a sinking feeling in his chest at her comment.</p><p>“The problem I’m getting at here is the same issue I spent my early years in the kingdom writing about. No change can come because she believes she is completely justified and correct in her beliefs, just as you are sure you can change her mind if you talked to her. No change can happen because no one is willing to listen. And while all the wealthy nobles live in their palaces comfortably publish essays to debate this stuff, people die on the streets of poverty.”</p><p>She stood up and raised her voice.</p><p>“The only way things will ever change is if a revolution takes place. Without it, the people in power will keep passing small laws to possess more and more power until they own everything, and the people who do all the work own nothing. If left unchecked, those with power will always push for more power.”</p><p>“So why don’t you move to Republic City if you hate the Earth Kingdom so much?”</p><p>“I may have been born in the Water Tribe, but the Earth Kingdom was my home. Even if I wanted to leave, I can guarantee you the problems would not be solved in Republic City because the factors causing it still remain.”</p><p>“But Republic City has a democratically elected council, isn’t that far superior to a monarchy.” He tried.</p><p>“The problem with the earth queen is that she has too much power given to her. She is a single woman at the top of a hierarchical pyramid over every other person in the kingdom. A council does not change this, it just splits the power and hides the pyramid.”</p><p>“What do you mean hides the pyramid? It's a free city. If you want to move up you just have to be talented or creative enough to do so.”</p><p>“I assume you are referring to capitalism?” She asked.</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>“At first glance, it might seem like a system devoid of any real inequality. As all of its supporters will tell you, skill does not discriminate.”</p><p>“But it doesn’t.”</p><p>“Right, it just imposes a hierarchical pyramid onto people based on economic status rather than the accident of birthright?” She said sarcastically.</p><p>“What are you trying to get at here?”</p><p>“How do you learn skills?” She prodded.</p><p>“From teachers.”</p><p>“By…” she left it hanging for him to answer.</p><p>“Asking them?”</p><p>“And more often than not, you compensate them with money for their troubles.” She said frustrated.</p><p>He was silent as he thought this over. He had never given any thought to this, but the more he analyzed it in his head the less sense it seemed to make.</p><p>“This means that people who already have money will be able to pick up more valuable and varied skills while those who do not, can not. So the people with more money will be better candidates for higher-paying jobs while. Those without it will continue to earn less money. Over time this will gradually build up until the one percent do nothing while they gradually earn all the money from their workers who do all of the actual work.”</p><p>She turned away from him. "There is actually evidence that the people who created capitalism were royalists attempting to preserve their wealth, but that is a topic for another time."</p><p>She pushed open the doors to leave. "Anyway, sorry for the lecture. I have put my essayist days behind me."</p><p>“Wait!” Noatak interrupted. She did.</p><p>“I’d like to talk with you a bit more if that’s alright.”</p><p>A smile twisted across her wrinkled skin. “Sure, but I have overstayed my welcome here. If you want to keep talking, we can do so at my house.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I'm sorry it's so long, I went off for quite a bit in her speeches, and believe or not this was after cutting the fat.</p><p>This woman isn't meant to be girl Marx but she is the stand-in for Marxist ideas in this universe. For those who aren't aware Marx is the father of what we call communism although not as we know it. He argued a bunch of stuff so I can't summarize all of it but it Amon, a bender, and by all accounts probably pretty well off dude discovering communism in this universe doesn't sit right to me. It's not a perfect analogy but he makes way more sense in my mind as a Stalin figure. An opportunist with no ideas or beliefs of his own coasting off of other people's ideas for power.</p><p>On the more fun end of things, I introduced Hao (which I'm now realizing might get confused with the Pokemon character). He won't be important but I like the idea of a hotshot jobber cowboy firebender who thinks he's cool but is probably one of the weakest benders in the series. He works for the Red Monsoons.</p><p>The Red Monsoons was the gang mentioned in the Revelation that I didn't know what to do with at first. Once I realized they could be the smugglers in the previous chapter I've got a much clearer picture of what they can be. I think I'm going to tie them heavily to the Amon subplot and have them be the weakest of the gangs in republic city.</p><p>Anyway, have a good day.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. The Circus</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Suyin Beifong has been discovering herself for a long time and has big plans. Luckily her loved ones and someone else are here to make sure that her dreams come true.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Characters;</p><p>Baatar: A wealthy son of a family from the innermost ring of Ba Sing Se who has always dreamed of architecture. After heavy pressure from his family to conform to the reality of his situation he ran away from home and formed a crush with a circus performer which turned into love the more he spoke with her.</p><p>Iknik Blackstone Varrick: A genius opportunist capitalist without a conscience. </p><p>Suyin Beifong: Was forced to leave republic city at a young age by her mother after being arrested by her sister. In her years traveling the world, she has grown as a person and ended up in the circus.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She jumped and spun. The world blurred around her so she closed her eyes and took it in. </p><p>After the feeling of nausea was gone from her stomach, and she raised a single leg to her ear. Spinning even faster, becoming a straight line with as little drag as possible.</p><p>Her leg touched her ear, and she held it for a minute before lowering it and spreading it out to reduce her speed. </p><p>As she did, the spin became bumper, and she was tossed in a circular motion, reflecting lights all over the room aff of her metallic leotard.</p><p>The nearly empty room was dead, watching her in a hypnotic trance.</p><p>As she reached a slow enough speed, she raised her arms and bent the metal hidden under the sand, transforming it into a large, blooming lotus. Its petals curved down, allowing the hare-elephants to march forward onto them with mounted trumpeters showing off their well-tuned harmony.</p><p>Then the firebenders followed suit, with one creating a pink and red fire dragon in his hands. In a second, it was in the hands of the man to his right. And it continued to move in a circle even faster as the men tossed it.</p><p>Next, some drummers joined the line, and then dancing platypus bears. All as the lotus’ petals lifted off of the ground.</p><p>Eventually, the dragon escaped the clutches of the firebender and soared into the air, and fell down past her. And landed in the very center of the blooming lotus igniting the second ring of fire from which the star of the show emerged.</p><p>An old man appeared in the shower of sparks, sporting the logo of the circus and a dancing cane. As he tap-danced, the tuba’s chimed in from the sidelines. His face revealed the true passion he had for this and nearly hid the long wrinkles by sheer force of personality.</p><p>The song soon concluded, Su was quickly lowered from the ceiling with the other dancers, and everyone took a final bow to a standing ovation.</p><p>After the show, she was greeted with much enthusiasm by her partner, Baatar, the Ringmaster, and a new face she didn’t recognize.</p><p>“What a show! I can’t believe it. You practically blew me away with the spectacle.” The young man said.</p><p>“Well thank you for the compliment, but it wasn’t just me. The whole troupe worked to bring that performance to life.”</p><p>“But you were the one metalbending, that's the thing that brought the whole show together.”</p><p>“I suppose that's a way you could look at it.” She put on a smile as her eyes drifted to the Ringmaster. She didn’t want to be rude to this man if he was a donor for the circus.</p><p>He chuckled a bit. “I don’t know how I can put this lightly. I know you love this circus, you could probably get a job anywhere, and you chose here. As you know the circus hasn’t been doing too well recently.”</p><p>She grimaced and looked around to the half-empty bleachers she had spent the entire morning setting up.</p><p>“I overheard you and Baatar talking about your plans for a city while I was feeding the animals a month ago.”</p><p>Su and Baatar went red and silent in perfect sync. </p><p>“Wow, you both look like tomatoes. You kind of sound like them actually as well.” He turned to the Ringmaster. “Are you sure they aren’t fruit?”</p><p>“Tomatoes are a vegetable.” He responded quietly.</p><p>“Damn it I know what I said and if this deal is going to work out I need to know if they are fruits!”</p><p>He paused to try and read the young man’s strange expression. “They aren’t…”</p><p>“Well, that's perfect.” He bounced back quickly.</p><p>She and Baatar had indeed talked endlessly about their dreams and building a perfect city from the ground up out of metal. To make it a shining beacon of the arts across the world but at least she had never believed it would actually come true.</p><p>“What I’m getting at is I can’t keep the circus open forever and you’ve done a lot to help my dreams come true so in my old age I’m gonna give back what I can to you. I’ve partnered with this rich young man to help fund this city you want to make.”</p><p>She looked at him, lost for words.</p><p>“I don’t know what to say I can’t even begin to…” Baatar put his hand on her shoulder and she pulled him into a hug.</p><p>“Thank you all so much for this. We won’t let you down.”</p><p>“You better not!” The young man said.</p><p>“I hope this doesn’t come across as rude, but who are you, and how did you get involved with this.”</p><p>“Well I came here to reunite with my ex, but she was a no show. So then I decided to join the circus, but all that work was building calluses on my hands and instilling work ethic into me so I quit. I didn't have much else to do with the cash I came into recently. And then I found this man trying to get a large loan from the bank.” He threw his arm over the Ringmaster’s shoulder.</p><p>“It was like destiny. He needed money, but couldn’t afford to pay them back soon, and he didn’t want to deal with the Red Monsoons or Triad. I had money, and was staying away from the Triad and the Red Monsoons. So naturally, I proposed a different idea to him, which I’m going to pitch to you.”</p><p>“What is it?” She said, a bit worried.</p><p>He held out a large pile of cash. “Money is easy to make, I can always find more money. What I want is the resources of a powerful city behind me.”</p><p>“Resources, like what?” Said Su, even more, worried at his vagueness.</p><p>“I’m talking about tax breaks, a large swath of land, a share of the mineral rights, high tech laboratories, maybe an assistant if you have one, stuff like that.”</p><p>“I suppose that would be possible, but it’d be a while before we’re able to complete construction considering we haven’t even started.”</p><p>Baatar cleared his throat behind her. She turned to see him slightly grinning.</p><p>“I might have drawn up a rough plan, and mailed a few old friends for help.”</p><p>“How long have you known about this?” Everyone was so prepared for this, it made her feel a little insecure.</p><p>“The Ringmaster told me about his plan to borrow money two months back, so I had a lot of time to make sure the surprise was ready, and to not get your hopes up if it was impossible. I wanted to make sure everything was perfect for when we do this.”</p><p>“This is wonderful! Thank you so much, everyone!” She brought everyone into a warm hug.</p><p>“I love happy endings.” Said the young investor slipping the cash along with a legal document for her to sign into her coat pockets.</p><p>She left the hug and looked at the young man.</p><p>“I’m grateful for your investment, but I don’t even know your name.”</p><p>“My name is Iknik Blackstone Varrick, but you can call me Varrick.”<br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I don't know if I should have been more explicit about it by the Ringmaster here is the unnamed fire nation kid from Appa's lost days. I like the idea that he saw how poorly animals were treated and grew up to make a circus to spread the wonders of what he saw without any of the cruelty. </p><p>Fun Fact of the day: There is a Percy Jackson musical. Who knew? Not me.</p><p>Future note: I just noticed I had somehow posted the text twice, I've fixed the problem now. I apologize for the confusion. I didn't even notice it trying to get these out on every weekday.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Nightmares</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Ming-Hua remembers a bad memory and takes her frustration out on who is there.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Characters;</p><p>Korra: Newest Avatar kidnapped at a young age by a group of revolutionaries called the Red Lotus. She is learning waterbending.</p><p>Ming-Hua: A former White Lotus who lost her arms.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Well attuned to the ebb and flow of battle, she deflected the rocks feeling, the weight of each impact. Limbs of water pushed on by her own well-worn arms.</p><p>In the distance, she spotted their target, a man who had most recently decided to challenge the earth queen’s legitimacy by attempting to establish a new nation. He had stirred up hearts and captured slaves around the kingdom, which he put to use as human weapons.</p><p>His name was well known even amongst the minor lotus such as herself. Everyone had known he would cross the boundary one day, it was only a matter of when.</p><p>And indeed there he stood in the distance, the fulfiller of hushed prophecies and she suspected, the most foolish man in the world.</p><p>Despite his foolhardiness, she could never describe him as a fool. He knew his advantages and pressed them. </p><p>Lightning benders let out frequent blasts from behind a wall paralyzing troops to her left and right who got hit. Earthbenders tossed seemingly endless boulders raining massive debris down on them.</p><p>She deflected another well-timed barrage of earthen artillery, narrowly stepped out of the way of a stray lightning bolt, and was blown back by the force of a mighty explosion.</p><p>She hesitated to get up while she confronted what had just happened. She snapped out of the trance just in time to see an old man and a young kid dashing by her. It was Xai Bau and his apprentice.</p><p>He dashed over the slowly opening earth, touching the ground a lot less than she had assumed was possible, and made their way to the fortress in the distance.</p><p>She grimaced and jumped to her feet, returning to the octopus stance in time to deflect more earth, and again managed to dodge lightning. This time as the explosion came at her, she managed to push the water in front to protect herself.</p><p>She saw the two getting ever closer to the fortress in the distance. They tossed boulders directly at them, which they were able to avoid without trouble. One flew directly over their heads.</p><p>She raised her arm reflexively and ducked, but it was too late. The crunch that followed was sickening.</p><p>She awoke with a gasp to a young girl clinging to her waist.</p><p>She tried to push the girl away, only to remember her handicap.</p><p>It was the damn avatar.</p><p>She had been having more and more frequent dreams when the girl wormed her way into her bed. It hadn’t done wonders for their relationship.</p><p>“What do you want?” She spits.</p><p>The girl stirred, looking up at her. She had evidently been there for a while before being noticed.</p><p>She looked down, embarrassed.</p><p>“I had a nightmare, and I…”</p><p>Ming said nothing but proceeded to give her a nasty look as she talked.</p><p>“I’m sorry I shouldn’t have snuck in I was just scared and since you’re a waterbender as well I thought you would…” she trailed off as the woman’s eyebrow raised further.</p><p>After Korra came to a full stop, she spoke.</p><p>“If you're having nightmares go see P’Li or Zaheer. I’ve got nothing to offer you. And don’t touch me!”</p><p>She pulled herself away from the girl and turned away.</p><p>The girl paused a second to watch her for a second before leaving her room. As she left, the woman failed to grip her shoulders as they began to throb with pain.</p><p>She made no noise but writhed and squirmed as the pain became even worse.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ming-Hua has some stuff she needs to work through. I was hoping to convey the idea that Ming-Hua is angry but because she is lashing out at the world without anyone to pay for her loss. I'm gonna develop the Korra &amp; Ming thing more before Republic City but this is the starting point for their relationship. Korra here is about 7 in my mind.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Daydreams</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>While unlocking Korra's first chakra P'Li discovers her own has become blocked by increasingly powerful trauma.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Characters;</p><p>Korra: Newest Avatar kidnapped at a young age by a group of revolutionaries called the Red Lotus. She is learning waterbending.</p><p>P'Li: A combustion bender, Red Lotus revolutionary, and lover of Zaheer. She has no passion for the revolution, but she has faith that it will lead the world to a better place.</p><p>Zaheer: The current face of the Red Lotus and a spiritual leader to all in its ranks. He cannot bend, but he is gifted in martial arts. He believes that freedom will aid the world and to this end, he has kidnapped the Avatar to try and show her a different path devoid of the idea of all past Avatars that order is the only path to balance. Here doesn't want to destroy the world to create chaos, he wants to tear down bad systems and hopefully replace them with new ones.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He grabbed her and threw her to the floor.</p><p>“Is that understood!”</p><p>She made no noise, she knew better than to offer up what could be misunderstood as resistance. In its place, she simply nodded.</p><p>She didn’t stop. She kept nodding. She couldn’t stop herself. She kept nodding long after he had left the room.</p><p>She crumbled to the floor in dry tears. She wanted to wail into the muffling night. She wanted to be heard. She wanted someone to know she was alive and in pain.</p><p>But no sound escaped. Her frail head bobbed up and down in an empty room until she gave up on the useless activity. She returned to her bed for the night.</p><p>She tucked herself deep into the covers as the familiar footsteps returned. He was almost there.</p><p>She was stirred from her trance by the young girl beside her.</p><p>“Are you alright? You looked afraid.” Korra asked.</p><p>P’Li rubbed her eyes and let out a deep sigh.</p><p>“Go get Zaheer.” She was straightforward and to the point as she always was with the girl.</p><p>She had asked to learn firebending at some point from her, but P’Li wasn't ready to teach. She had her own problems.</p><p>Korra nodded yes, but her eyes still carried worry. She ran off to go get him as P’Li returned to her meditation.</p><p>She returned to a place of her youth when she was first taught the basics of combustion bending.</p><p>“Do you feel that, at the bottom of your back?”</p><p>“Yeah, I think so.”</p><p>“That’s the earth chakra. It is the most base of them all. To allow this chakra to flow free, you need to come to terms with your own death.”</p><p>“But I’m scared.”</p><p>“You don’t have any reason to fear. Death is the most natural thing in the world.”</p><p>“But it’s so dark I don’t want to go away!”</p><p>“You won’t. Death isn’t an end. We have no finite end. There is no darkness or void. And even though most of us lose our memories, we will never lose who we are.”</p><p>“But I’m still scared.”</p><p>“You have nothing to fear.” She felt a hand grasp hers, and she looked opened her eyes to see her father giving her one of his rare smiles.</p><p>She took a deep breath and returned to the sight of her trauma.</p><p>“Come to terms with your own death.”</p><p>A familiar face appears before her, sprouting an exaggerated, cancerous form.</p><p>He looks down on her with an angry gaze all too familiar to her.</p><p>“You thought you could kill me? You are mine to use. Together, we are going to change the world. You’re too young to see the big picture now, but once you grow up a bit you’ll thank me.”</p><p>He raises his hand behind his head, and as it passes her. She is tossed aside as if he had just kicked a pebble.</p><p>Her head collides with the wall, and she can feel her brain rattle and bounce. Ghostly tears refuse to dry her swelling face as she recalls the past.</p><p>“Come to terms with your own death. You don’t have any reason to fear.”</p><p>She can feel her heart beating faster and recalls the feeling of her brain bouncing about her skull with vivid clarity. She feels her face flush, and it becomes hard to breathe.</p><p>A hand finds its place over hers.</p><p>“What is it?” He whispers gently, careful not to send her into a panic.</p><p>“My earth chakra is blocked. I’m having trouble getting over some,” she pauses before finishing the thought, “things from my past.”</p><p>He removes his hand from hers, and she hears him settle down next to her without a word.</p><p>“I just can’t stop thinking about him recently. I was doing fine for a while, but ever since we took the girl, it's been getting worse.” She clarified.</p><p>“Gan Li was a monster, but he has no power over you anymore. He’s gone and left no legacy behind him.”</p><p>“But he has. He left me behind. I’m his monster, I’m his legacy.”</p><p>“And if you continue to see it that way, you’ll carry it on. The best thing you can do is forget him. Make everything he ever worked for meaningless.”</p><p>P’Li stayed silent and absorbed his knowledge. She couldn’t say whether he was right or wrong but talking to him usually helped.</p><p>“What separates him and us, he and you is death. I don’t believe anyone is truly afraid of death. What everyone is afraid of is that their life meant nothing on the cosmic scale. If you or I can bring down a tyrant or even kill a single warlord, we have left behind a positive change in the world. Death, like all fears, only has the power we give it.”</p><p>She took a deep breath and returned to the scene one final time.</p><p>There he was, the self-proclaimed most powerful earthbender in the world and true leader of the earth nation. </p><p>He stared down at her with hatred in his eye. He had started and spread war for power. He had used her and turned her into a monster for it. Yet here he was big, but never as big as he wanted to seem.</p><p>She doubted that anyone today would have even heard of him outside of the Lotus. He left nothing behind except the people he hurt.</p><p>He had done this, he had turned her into this. But she knew he wasn’t going to do anything else to her anymore.</p><p>Her hatred turned to anger and sorrow and confusion and frustration. Unnamable feelings manifested uncomfortably within her chest.</p><p>He yelled his childish words and hurled a boulder overhead.</p><p>She let out her feelings in a deep breath as he became mist in her mind's eye. He disappeared in an explosion.</p><p>She didn’t open her eyes right away. Instead, she thought about what Zaheer had said.</p><p>She pondered on the idea of a legacy. Maybe helping someone and leaving a positive impact on the world would help her.</p><p>The problem was that she wasn’t as avid about anarchism as Zaheer was. She had no ambition to be the greatest bender in the world or to hold the power of her own. </p><p>Perhaps saving a slave could work, but the people known as slaves were very seldom aware of their own imprisonment anymore.</p><p>She opened her eyes and saw it, her legacy.</p><p>She grabbed Zaheer’s hand and thanked him with a kiss on the cheek. Then she hurried past him to Korra.</p><p>“Hey sweety, did you still want to learn firebending?” She wasn’t used to being nice so the words escaped her mouth awkwardly.</p><p>Still, she seemed very excited.</p><p>“Really!”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ain't the fear of death and childhood trauma wacky.</p><p> </p><p>EN2: Apparently I added a lieutenant x Ming-Hua tag at some point by accident. Apologies for anyone confused by that.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Adjustment</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>After being discovered by the white lotus the group is forced to escape to a new town where they are having trouble living in close quarters. Korra is having trouble bending water and gets into a fight with Ming-Hua over her skills as a teacher.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Characters;</p><p>Ghazan: A lavabender and revolutionary member of the Red Lotus.</p><p>Korra: Newest Avatar kidnapped at a young age by a group of revolutionaries called the Red Lotus. She is learning waterbending.</p><p>Ming-Hua: A former White Lotus who lost her arms and has been haunted by the memory.</p><p>P'Li: A combustion bender, Red Lotus revolutionary, and lover of Zaheer. She has no passion for the revolution, but she has faith that it will lead the world to a better place.</p><p>Zaheer: The current face of the Red Lotus and a spiritual leader to all in its ranks. He cannot bend, but he is gifted in martial arts. He believes that freedom will aid the world and to this end, he has kidnapped the Avatar to try and show her a different path devoid of the idea of all past Avatars that order is the only path to balance. Here doesn't want to destroy the world to create chaos, he wants to tear down bad systems and hopefully replace them with new ones.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She pushed her arms forward, but nothing happened.</p><p>	“I don’t understand why we had to leave!”</p><p>	“Some bad people are after us, that’s all you need to know.”</p><p>	“Do they want to hurt us?”</p><p>	“It’s none of your business, just try the technique again!”</p><p>	“It isn’t working. I’ve been trying and trying but the water barely moves.”</p><p>	“Something must be wrong then. Check your stance and try again.”</p><p>	“I did check my stance! I’ve been checking again and again! It’s not helping!”</p><p>	“Don’t you blow up at me little girl! You’re the one who asked to learn it!”</p><p>	“I’m not a little girl, I'm already eight years old. And you’re supposed to be teaching me!”</p><p>	“Well, I’m sorry I’m not a good enough teacher for you.” She taunted the girl with her stubs. “Why don’t you just go ask Zaheer to teach you waterbending instead!”</p><p>	“Fine!” The girl stormed off, leaving the waterbender to her misery.</p><p>	Their new house was nowhere near as big as their last one so it was no surprise to her that Zaheer needed no explanation.</p><p>	“I can’t teach you waterbending Korra.”</p><p>	“Please, Zaheer! She called me a little kid! She knows I’m already eight! Please!”</p><p>	“I’m not a bender. Besides, when she’s calling you a little kid it's a relative term. She only means it in the context of…” He stopped when he noticed P’Li’s dirty look and followed it to Korra’s scrunched up face.</p><p>	“What Zaheer means to say is she was just angry. Just give her some space, and she’ll be fine.” Said P'Li with her usual inside voice.</p><p>	“Oh, of course. I’ll just go see if I can help Ming out.” Zaheer shuffled out of the room awkwardly, leaving the two alone.</p><p>	“You can’t let her get to you, she’s only a child.”</p><p>	“I know that! Every time I try to talk to her, I just get so angry.”</p><p>	“Would it be alright if I sat down?”</p><p>	“Suit yourself, guru.” She replied sarcastically.</p><p>	“You know why  she’s having trouble now right?”</p><p>	“I need to get better at describing forms I guess.”</p><p>	“She is frustrated because she just went through a huge change. She’s having trouble with the fundamentals of waterbending because the ability to waterbend draws from the bender's willingness to change.”</p><p>	“And you want me to fix her?”</p><p>	“No, P’Li just has to take her out to show her that she has no reason to be frustrated.”</p><p>	“So we’re done here?”</p><p>	“Not quite. You’re still having anger issues.”</p><p>	“So you want me to join them?”</p><p>	“I want you to do what makes you happy. If you think you’d enjoy a girl's night out, that's up to you, but I have a feeling that would only make things worse.”</p><p>	“So what should I do then.” She spits.</p><p>	“Just make sure it makes you happy."</p><p>	“Alright, I suppose a night out could be pretty nice." She began to walk away before calling ut over her shoulder. "Would you mind watching the house alone?”</p><p>	Zaheer’s forehead crinkled. He attempted to decipher her meaning before he realized what she was asking and nearly let out a chuckle.</p><p>	“I’d be happy too.”</p><p>	“Thanks.”</p><p>	She split off from Zaheer to the men’s bedrooms from which a man’s snore could be heard throughout the house.</p><p>	“Yo, Ghazan wake up!” She kicked the door open, sending him to his feet.</p><p>	“What is it? An enemy?” She chuckled at his crusty half-opened eyes, which darted around the dark room.</p><p>	“Zaheer gave me some time off. I’m gonna treat you to some dinner tonight, is that cool.”</p><p>	“Yeah. Just give me a bit more sleep. I was on watch all the way here.”</p><p>	“I’ll pick you up and sunset, be ready.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Shorter than anything else I've released but I need something to balance out those chapters which are longer than I wanted. They're in the earth kingdom right now for anyone who is curious.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Conversation</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Ghazan and Ming-Hua date night.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Characters;</p><p>Ghazan: A lavabender and revolutionary member of the Red Lotus.</p><p>Ming-Hua: A former White Lotus who lost her arms and has been haunted by the memory.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“You didn’t have any nicer clothes?”</p><p>“These are my nice clothes. I spent hours scrubbing and drying these the other day.”</p><p>Ming broke out in laughter, much to Ghazan’s horror. </p><p>“Those are your nice clothes! You like a turtle-duck with that collar.”</p><p>“Not all of us have nice jewelry to pull out for special occasions. I didn’t even know you had your ears pierced.”</p><p>"I had them pierced when I was a little girl, but I may have had to do it again to get these beauties to fit.” She ran her fingers over earrings encrusted with little blue and green jewels.</p><p>“They are really nice, where did you get them? Maybe I can pick up some for myself.” He said.</p><p>“You’re out of luck, my mother put them together. Daddy would always manage to sneak out little handfuls of worthless crystals out of the mines for her.”</p><p>“You grew up in the Earth Kingdom? What was that like?”</p><p>“Mom left the tribe at a young age to face the world or something. But ended up falling in love with the first boy who proposed. I don't think she was ever happy about where she ended up.”</p><p>“She sounds like a lovely woman.”</p><p>“So what was your childhood like?" Ming changed the subject. "When we first met in the lotus you were so bad at bending I was sure you would be gone by the end of the month.”</p><p>“My parents were normal people, I guess. My grandparents never approved of their love, so they were constantly moving between the earth and fire nations. Grandad served on Ozai's air fleet on the final day of the war. Grandma lost her husband to the war.”</p><p>“That couldn’t have been easy. I’m sure the fighting drove you nuts as a kid.” She gave him a loose smile.</p><p>“I learned to live with it. Grandad wanted me to be a fire bender and took me to classes when I was visiting. Grandma never wanted me to bend ever and tried to encourage me to cook instead. When I earthbent for the first time I doubt either of them were very happy about it.”</p><p>“I remember the first time I bent some water, I froze my babysitter to the floor until my parents got home,” Ming recalled.</p><p>“Accidentally right?”</p><p>She just laughed. “So, how did you join the Lotus?”</p><p>“When I was taking firebending classes, I could never wrap my head around the idea of anger. I got frustrated, but I never wanted to hurt someone else. So in secret, I started going to the Lotus camps which taught kids the ancient Sun Warrior forms.”</p><p>“You sounded like a wimp. I probably would have beaten you up as a kid. So when did you stop dancing and learn to earthbend?”</p><p>“I actually first bent while doing the form. It was such a small rock I could pretend not to notice it at first but before I knew it I was bending earth all over the place, and I couldn’t hide it anymore.”</p><p>“How did your grandfather react to that?”</p><p>“I could tell he wasn’t happy. He was always nice to me, and my dad before that, but afterward,  I just lost all of my value to him. We left the fire nation very soon after that to head towards my mom’s side of the family who was horrified to discover I was a bender.”</p><p>“That’s family for you. Before I was part of the Lotus I worked as a helmswoman for some pirates. No one in my family was too thrilled to discover I had a wanted poster. They urged me to turn myself in. Being young and foolish I did.”</p><p>“Oh man,” Ghazan stuffed a bit of crab into his mouth, “Thwat doesn’t sound like ou at alw.”</p><p>“Don’t talk with your mouth full, it makes you look like a toddler.”</p><p>“I got out of jail lucky. My family and friends were waiting for me on the outside. I don’t know what would have happened to me if I couldn’t go back to them.”</p><p>“You might be running from the entire White Lotus and the Red Lotus.” He joked.</p><p>She leaned down to slurp up some spaghetti.</p><p>“Anyway, I joined the Lotus to turn my life around. While there, I met Xai Bao, who asked me some hard questions.”</p><p>“What’d he ask?”</p><p>“I don’t remember the exact wording but it was something along the lines of, ‘Who do you think public order and morality serves to benefit?’” She mimicked the old man’s voice for the line.</p><p>“That sounds like him. He always was into that philosophy stuff. I suppose that’s why he was so enthusiastic about Zaheer.”</p><p>“Someone jealous?”</p><p>“Of Zaheer? The old man was nice to me, but I wasn't that interested in most of his ideas.”</p><p>“I was always confused about something. How did you end up learning how to lavabend from a guy like that?”</p><p>“You mean a non-bender?”</p><p>“I meant a nerd, but I suppose that works as well.”</p><p>He smiled a bit at her joke. “He saw me doing the dancing dragon and went off about the illusion of separation. He watched me for weeks afterward, suggesting chnages I could make to my form to bend earth more effectively while still keeping the dance.”</p><p>Ghazan shoved another large piece of crab meat in his mouth and opened it to speak while he chewed.</p><p>He decided against it after seeing Ming’s sharp smile.</p><p>“The first day I ever lava bent was when I felt the earth shifting underneath me and discovered the earth breathing.”</p><p>Ming was taken aback by this. “Breathing! It’s a rock it can’t breathe!”</p><p>“All bending is built on ideas. Lavabending is only possible once you stop seeing the earth as a rock.”</p><p>“So what is it?” She was happy to see him so passionate about something. It was almost enough to get over the leftover food in his mouth.</p><p> “It's a living being with a history and memories dating back farther than any being on this earth can comprehend. Much like the Sun Warrior’s recognize fire is life, I recognize the world is alive.”</p><p>He stuffed more crab into his mouth and swallowed almost all of it before talking.</p><p>“So, how does your bending work?”</p><p>“I just waterbend.”</p><p>“With your mind. You shouldn’t sell yourself short like that, you're the greatest waterbender I know, and you don't even have hands.”</p><p>“I am pretty great.” She smiled for a second before looking away. “But, my bending isn’t that special. P’Li can also bend with her mind, but she has hands on top of that.”</p><p>“We weren’t really talking about P’Li. I was asking how you do it.”</p><p>“There isn’t any special philosophy behind it if that’s what you're asking.”</p><p>“I’m asking how you do it.” Ghazan seemed frustrated by her sidestepping. She decided the best thing to do here was to just give up and tell him. </p><p>“Losing my arms wasn’t an easy experience. I can still feel them on me. At night it's hard to sleep because it feels like my arms have returned and are being stabbed by dull knives all over.”</p><p>Ghazan studied her face. “I didn’t know. Why didn’t you…”</p><p>“Stop. I don’t need your pity. I’m telling you because I want sympathy, I’m telling you because you asked.”</p><p>He shut his mouth and nodded.</p><p>“According to the Lotus healers, I have phantom limbs who are sending me phantom pain. The first time I bent water, after the accident, I had woken up alone in the middle of the night. The pain had gotten worse and worse until I was on the brink of passing out, so I tried to pick up some water to heal myself, and it almost worked.”</p><p>She looked down at her untouched food.</p><p>“I feel where my limbs used to be, and as long as the nerves in my brain think my arm is still there and moving, bending becomes no problem. In fact, it's even quicker without having to wave those heavy things around.”</p><p>“I don’t know what it's like to lose a limb, but if it helps, I don’t think you need them. You may have lost a part of your body, but everything that makes you you is still there. You haven’t lost Ming-Hua if that makes sense.”</p><p>She didn’t speak for a while and enjoyed seeing him wriggle. She decided to end it by pecking him on the lips. He kissed her passionately back.</p><p>He tasted like crab.</p><p>The pain wasn’t gone. Her anger hadn’t left. But it was nice to just talk to someone openly about her issues, even if it was with a man who believed the earth had feelings to be hurt.</p><p>“Thanks.” She said quickly. Before he had a chance to ruin the moment, she stood up and left.</p><p>He tried to follow her but was stopped by the waiter, the waiter demanding he pays for his food.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I haven't written much romance stuff, so I hope this isn't cringy or anything. The hard part here is I know almost nothing about either of these characters' personalities so I had to improvise with what was there and hope they played off of each other well. This might also come across as an exposition chapter despite my intentions. This was about 1600 originally so I managed to trim it down a bit, but I was afraid of cutting the unimportant lines like "she laughed" because I wanted them to seem like they genuinely enjoyed each other's company. Do my phantom limb bending and lavabending ideas make sense? I hope so.</p><p>Random fact of the day: Snails might be responsible for the myth of cupid and his love arrows. There is a species of snails that shoot 'love darts' which are mucus meant to fertilize the other snail's eggs. Snails are hermaphrodites (both sexes) so they both get shot by love darts while mating. Hopefully, that romantic fact was a great fit for this chapter.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Base of the Spine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Korra has a nice but unremarkable night out with P'Li and returns home to find a mysterious man running from gangsters.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Characters;</p><p>Amon/ Noatak: A bloodbender, son of a crime boss, and student to a revolutionary essayist. He is seeking the answers to how we can solve big problems of inequality within a world which will not give anyone he deems as good or worthy the power to do so.</p><p>Korra: Newest Avatar kidnapped at a young age by a group of revolutionaries called the Red Lotus currently being guided by Zaheer.</p><p>P'Li: A combustion bender, Red Lotus revolutionary, and lover of Zaheer. She has no passion for the revolution, but she has faith that it will lead the world to a better place.</p><p>Zaheer: The current face of the Red Lotus and a spiritual leader to all in its ranks. He cannot bend, but he is gifted in martial arts. He believes that freedom will aid the world and to this end, he has kidnapped the Avatar to try and show her a different path devoid of the idea of all past Avatars that order is the only path to balance. Here doesn't want to destroy the world to create chaos, he wants to tear down bad systems and hopefully replace them with new ones.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I-I can’t. You’ll end up in a lot of trouble if they find me here.”</p><p>“You should have said that before you crawled through my window then. But don’t worry, I won’t hurt you.” The little girl gave him a nasty look she must have picked up from an adult at some point.</p><p>“So why are they trying to get you?”</p><p>“Difference of opinions.” He bit his lip.</p><p>She raised an eyebrow at him.</p><p>“They have something important to me. I need to get it back before something happens.”</p><p>“Korra, you should have told us you had a visitor.” Came a voice from behind him.</p><p>The girl jumped up and tried to tackle him to the floor.</p><p>“You’re back!” He embraced her warmly before turning his attention to their visitor.</p><p>“Where’s P’Li didn’t she take you out?”</p><p>“Yeah, but she said she was tired and passed out on her bed.”</p><p>Satisfied, Zaheer turned his attention away from her.</p><p>“What’s your name?”</p><p>“Amon.” He said, recalling advice from the woman that had given him shelter for the past few years.</p><p>“That’s an unusual name, where are you from?”</p><p>“The Earth Kingdom.”</p><p>“That’s a big place. I take it you're running from the benders outside?”</p><p>“You're not going to turn me in, are you?”</p><p>“Should I?” The man asked.</p><p>“They’re part of a gang that specializes in smuggling drugs and other illegal imports between the earth kingdom, water tribe, and republic city. The Red Monsoons.”</p><p>“The ex-pirates? Why are they after you?</p><p>“They think I took something apparently very precious to them, and they want it back. The only problem is I don’t know what or where it is.”</p><p>“I want to know what they took from-” he was cut off by a hard knock on the door.</p><p>Zaheer’s finger slowly drifted to his mouth while he mouthed for him to hide.</p><p>Korra guided him into the empty bedroom as quietly as the creaking door Ming Hua had made would allow.</p><p>Zaheer heard the visitor knock once more against the hardwood before opening it.</p><p>To say the Dai Lee agent with a solid gash through his eyes was a surprise would be a monumental understatement.</p><p>“Greetings, my name is Shǒu. We are here on the order of the queen to detain two enemies of the state for acts of treason.”</p><p>“I’m afraid I haven’t seen anyone.”</p><p>Zaheer watched as he tapped his foot to the floor rhythmically. </p><p>He narrowly dodged the hand of earth.</p><p>He didn’t dodge the follow-ups attacks from the man's unseen allies.</p><p>“P’Li!” He cried out desperately. To himself, he silently cursed the bad luck that Ming and Ghazan were still on their date.</p><p>“Cuff him.” Shǒu walked directly past him to the room in which Korra and Amon had hidden. He was followed by two other men with distinct gashes on other parts of their faces wearing similar robes.</p><p>Korra shivered under the bed, watching her teacher get taken out nearly instantly. To her left, Amon struggled to keep his panting down as the man’s feet got closer and closer. Then they stopped and turned.</p><p>P’Li’s door was kicked down with a powerful thud as she rolled out of her room. BOOM!</p><p>The man’s allies were sent flying out of the apartment. </p><p>She took another breath before finding it escaping her too soon.</p><p>She looked down to find a rock hand knocking the wind from her. Before she could lift her head she was pushed to the wall by another hand on her forehead.</p><p>“You may be able to work your tricks on civilians, but I’ve dealt with enough of your kind to know how you work.”</p><p>She barely had time to process what he was saying before he continued.</p><p>“Right now I’m blocking your crown chakra. You require this to project the explosion anywhere but your face. You blow up at all, and you’ll only be hurting yourself.”</p><p>He turned away from her, returning only the hand which stole her breath.</p><p>“Stay put.” He said without hate or joy.</p><p>Amon watched his bare feet shift around once more as he bent up the bed.</p><p>Korra shook as she stared into the man’s burning eyes. She couldn’t do anything. She was helpless as she lost her family.</p><p>“Get out of the way.” She couldn’t move.</p><p>He grabbed her with a rough hand and knocked her aside into the wall.</p><p>P’Li watched in horror. Korra landed with a thud and began to leak tears.</p><p>She took the deepest breath possible and jumped onto Shǒu.</p><p>“Korra get out of here!” </p><p>“P’LI!”</p><p>BOOM!</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Sorry, it's a few minutes late. This one had a very different direction originally but I decided to celebrate 10 chapters I'm going to do a few-parter building on a little bit of everything from every previous chapter. I'm also cutting it shorter than I probably could because it's late when I'm writing this. Also ending note. P'Li completes mini-arc by getting over her fear of death by securing her legacy's safety.</p><p>I'm going to address this now in case of the confusion over Zaheer and P'Li's easy defeats. I really didn't want this to come off as contrived or like I'm trying to introduce my OC who super strong and can take on Zaheer's entire group.</p><p>1. Zaheer has no powers. If he had them he would certainly win here. Without them, his only win condition is getting close which experienced Dai Lee wouldn't let him do.<br/>2. No preparation, but the enemy did<br/>3. Didn't see the other benders so they had the element of surprise allowing them to put him out of the fight before he can react<br/>4. The three are very coordinated.<br/>5. P'Li is powerful but probably the weakest bender in my mind amongst the four. Her explosions are good but never as strong as Sparky Sparky Boom Man.<br/>6. Combustion bending is more of a siege weapon than a tool for actual combat. It's like bringing a big canon to a gunfight. If you load it ahead of time and it actually hits you'll do well, but since the opponents basically just brought pistols they'll be able to fill you up before you have time to do much else.<br/>7. P'Li can fire bend but since she has enemies on both sides she was flanked no matter who she decided to take out. So she took out the numbers advantage by going for the two only to be caught off guard by something she couldn't have known. Again in a fair fight in a wrestling ring, I believe P'Li would win more times than she would lose against him.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Regroup</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Korra and Amon flee from the explosion and regroup with Ming and Ghazan coming back from their date.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Characters;</p><p>Amon/ Noatak: A bloodbender, son of a crime boss, and student to a revolutionary essayist. He is seeking the answers to how we can solve big problems of inequality within a world which will not give anyone he deems as good or worthy the power to do so.</p><p>Ghazan: A lavabender and revolutionary member of the Red Lotus. He is the most relaxed of the group and seeks to prove the unity of all things in time.</p><p>Korra: Newest Avatar kidnapped at a young age by a group of revolutionaries called the Red Lotus currently being guided by Zaheer.</p><p>Ming-Hua: A former White Lotus who lost her arms and has been haunted by the memory. She wants to form connections with those close to her but finds it difficult to connect to anyone in her group.</p><p>P'Li: A combustion bender, Red Lotus revolutionary, and lover of Zaheer. She has no passion for the revolution, but she has faith that it will lead the world to a better place.</p><p>Shǒu: A hand of the Dai Lee who has a large scar from a blade across both eyes blinding him. He has some unknown connection to combustion bending.</p><p>The Exile: A philosopher from the water tribe who spent most of her life in the earth kingdom contributing to the Ba Sing Se poverty essays. She lived with Amon for quite a few years.</p><p>Zaheer: The current face of the Red Lotus and a spiritual leader to all in its ranks. He cannot bend, but he is gifted in martial arts. He believes that freedom will aid the world and to this end, he has kidnapped the Avatar to try and show her a different path devoid of the idea of all past Avatars that order is the only path to balance. Here doesn't want to destroy the world to create chaos, he wants to tear down bad systems and hopefully replace them with new ones.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Her brain screamed so loud she was sure it would blow their cover.</p><p>“P’Li. We need to go back for her.”</p><p>“We don’t have time. She bought us an opening to escape those guys.”</p><p>“Were they Red Monsoons?”</p><p>“No, they were much worse. They’re the hands of the Earth Queen, the Dai Lee.”</p><p>Korra wracked her brain trying to remember where she had heard that name.</p><p>“Weren’t the Dai Lee disbanded and branded traitors after the war.”</p><p>“That’s what I heard as well, apparently they weren’t all cast out. Maybe they we-” </p><p>Korra was in the air. He was frozen to a wall. His hands couldn’t move. He could barely breathe. </p><p>Korra fell into the waiting arms of a relatively clean Ghazan.</p><p>“How you doing kiddo?”</p><p>“We don’t have time for this! Where are Zaheer and P’Li, and who is this?” Pushed and inpatient Ming-Hua.</p><p>“He said his name was Amon, he’s a friend. Zaheer and P’Li were ambushed by Dai Lee.”</p><p>Ghazan and Ming-Hua exchanged a worried look as Amon’s ice melted away. He gasped for breath.</p><p>“Shit, how did they find us?” Questioned Ming clenching her fists.</p><p>“Find you? They were probably just here to arrest a friend of mine. Why would they want to arrest you?”</p><p>Ming-Hua nearly cut him with her gaze. “It would be better if you didn’t know.”</p><p>“I want to help you guys rescue your friends, how can I do it?” Asked Amon.</p><p>“First off we need to know what we're up against. How many were there?” Asked Ghazan.</p><p>“I saw three Dai Lee, but they aren’t the only problem. There are several Red Monsoons walking around that might be cooperating with the Dai Lee.” Said Amon.</p><p>“Next I suppose you’ll say there are White Lotus here too.” Said Ghazan jokingly.</p><p>“Are they going to be a problem? There are quite a few who stopped here for the final performance of the Red Bison Circus. Apparently, the owner had some friends in it or something.”</p><p>“Godamnit!” Ming-Hua kicked a nearby wall so hard you could hear both crack.</p><p>“That’s really poorly made. You'd think a wall which means so much would be built to resist a single attack.” Commented Ghazan.</p><p>“Yeah the buildings here are made out of clay mined by earthbenders, but the only construction company for miles cuts a lot of corners and handles it poorly so none of the buildings here will have any value in fifty years.” Said Amon, offhandedly.</p><p>“Strange kid, any chance you’re a bender? We might be in some dire need of help if it's anything more than a handful of Dai Lee agents.” Ghazan pondered.</p><p>“I’m doing my best to avoid bending, but I need to repay the kindness of your friends,” said Amon, “I’m a bloodbender, and I don’t need a full moon.”</p><p>Everyone took a step back at that.</p><p>“Hot damn kid. A fake name, earth kingdom clothes, and a powerful bloodbender. Remind me to get your story when we’re done here.” Said Ghazan.</p><p>“Stop that, right now we need to focus on making a plan.” Said Ming-Hua.</p><p>“My friend was captured by some Red Monsoons after the show at the circus. They were going for me but she held them off so I could escape.”</p><p>“So the Red Monsoons want you, what do the Dai Lee want?”</p><p>“If I were to guess I’d say my friend but that wouldn’t explain why they went after me.”</p><p>“Maybe they think you’ll lead them to her?” Suggested Ghazan.</p><p>“No. They’re probably going to capture you to trade for her with the Red Monsoons.” Said Ming-Hua.</p><p>“Their secret police, why would they trade with pirates?” Asked Amon.</p><p>“Trust me it’s more common than you’d think. Back when I worked for them, they would let us pass through the walls on the condition our drug dealing only affected the lower class neighborhoods of Ba Sing Se.”</p><p>Ghazan face soured. “That’s horrible Ming.”</p><p>To Korra’s shock, the Kraken's face softened.“I know. They’re a big reason I don’t believe in governments. People always say they’re for protection but there wasn’t a whole lot of protection going on for those who didn’t directly add to the economy.” Said Ming-Hua.</p><p>“You sound like Zaheer.” Said Korra.</p><p>“Zaheer actually directed me to some writing that changed my world view. After doing a good job of teaching my dumb ass a lesson.” She seemed a little too happy at that last part.</p><p>“Most of our customers ended up being water, fire, and non-benders from out of the city, which gave the Ba Sing Se police force reason to lock up non-earthbenders disproportionately. It took reading quite a few of the Ba Sing Se poverty essays around that time to see the negative impact I was having.” She said.</p><p>“You read those? My friend actually wrote a few of them.”</p><p>“Do you know which ones?”</p><p>“A few, the big one was she wrote was ‘On the Exploitation of the Working Class’.”</p><p>“I read that one! Your friend was quite a passionate writer.”</p><p>"I didn't know you could read Ming-Hua. I thought pirates were a mostly illiterate bunch."</p><p>"Shut up Ghazan. I enlisted in the Lotus, so of course, I learned how to read."</p><p>"From them you mean."</p><p>"I said shut up." Korra was confused to find her smirking as cruelly as ever.</p><p>“She never quite explained how she lost her passion to me but it seems like she has a lot more regrets than she wants to let on.” Said Amon.</p><p>“Changing the subject, do you happen to know where she might be kept.” Asked Ghazan.</p><p>Amon thought for a second before replying. “It’s possible they never even left the circus grounds. I mean if they really are working with the Dai Lee for some reason it’d be a lot easier to meet up at a big landmark than a shack.” </p><p>“Fair point, but even if they aren’t there it’s where we’d have to start looking for a trail.” Said Ghazan.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This is mostly late because I wanted to add a list of important/ relevant characters to help people who might have trouble remembering the names of who's who. I didn't want this to be a three-parter but this part was longer than I wanted it to be. Luckily I said a few-parter to be safe.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Salvation Part 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Ghazan, Ming-Hua, Korra, and Amon launch their attack on Red Monsoons.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Characters;</p><p>Amon/ Noatak: A bloodbender, son of a crime boss, and student to a revolutionary essayist. He is seeking the answers to how we can solve big problems of inequality within a world which will not give anyone he deems as good or worthy the power to do so.</p><p>Ghazan: A lavabender and revolutionary member of the Red Lotus. He is the most relaxed of the group and seeks to prove the unity of all things in time.</p><p>Hao: A Red Monsoon firebender with a unique fashion sense who fancies himself a loose cannon who doesn't play by the rules. He seeks to define himself in this new age as a paragon of all that is man. A loser.</p><p>Korra: Newest Avatar kidnapped at a young age by a group of revolutionaries called the Red Lotus currently being guided by Zaheer.</p><p>Ming-Hua: A former White Lotus who lost her arms and has been haunted by the memory. She wants to form connections with those close to her but finds it difficult to connect to anyone in her group.</p><p>P'Li: A combustion bender, Red Lotus revolutionary, and lover of Zaheer. She has no passion for the revolution, but she has faith that it will lead the world to a better place.</p><p>Shǒu: A hand of the Dai Lee who has a large scar from a blade across both eyes blinding him. He has some unknown connection to combustion bending.</p><p>The Exile: A philosopher from the water tribe who spent most of her life in the earth kingdom contributing to the Ba Sing Se poverty essays. She lived with Amon for quite a few years.</p><p>Zaheer: The current face of the Red Lotus and a spiritual leader to all in its ranks. He cannot bend, but he is gifted in martial arts. He believes that freedom will aid the world and to this end, he has kidnapped the Avatar to try and show her a different path devoid of the idea of all past Avatars that order is the only path to balance. Here doesn't want to destroy the world to create chaos, he wants to tear down bad systems and hopefully replace them with new ones.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When the group of four arrived they were surprised to find the gangsters hadn’t left the circus. They were however patrolling the circus grounds with unusual interest.</p><p>The Red Lotus members had decided to steal the Exile for leverage they could use against the Dai Lee. Amon had agreed to the plan only because he was sure he could bloodbend the men before they could kill her with earthbending. </p><p>Much to the girl’s objections, it was unanimous that Korra would not go in with them. The problem was deciding who if at all would wait with her. </p><p>In the end, Ghazan elected to stay on the grounds that he was a trustworthy medium between the stranger who claimed he could bloodbend and the most competent bender of their group.</p><p>They started by subduing all the two patrolling members with a combination of waterbending to cover their head, and bloodbending to make them pass out.</p><p>Where they kept the Exile was obvious based on the stationed guards. Whereas the other two had been nearly falling asleep these two seemed to be alert to the slightest movement. </p><p>The pair were almost caught both times they had tried to subdue them with the previous tactic.</p><p>Eventually, Ming decided on a new plan.</p><p>She backed off hastily and retreated to her new target as Amon knocked out one of the guards allowing the other time to alert everyone within the tent with a loud shout before being subdued himself.</p><p>Meanwhile, Ming-Hua approached from the back and cut a hole in the surprisingly thick tent. It may have been spreading themselves too thin but they needed every advantage they could have if they were going to beat a group of five Red Monsoon elite.</p><p>She launched a blast of icy water from a nearby trough into the back of a big looking guy’s head causing him to stumble forward and collapse on the ground unceremoniously and at a forty-five-degree angle.</p><p>As the group was alerted to her presence they heard a scream from the guards outside diverting their attention once more.</p><p>Were it not for their leader, a smarmy looking firebender wearing a stetson, they would have been an easy threat.</p><p>“We're under attack! Group B, I want you to focus on whoever entered the tent but don’t give chase. Group A, and deal with the pretty lady!”</p><p>He barely got out his orders before she pulled from the icicle that was now the largest man's head, lowering him a bit closer to the ground, to freeze the first person who turned’s head with a layer of sheet frost.</p><p>With one hand the cowboy grabbed the bound and gagged, balding woman on the floor to make his declaration. “If you want this beautiful lady unharmed I suggest you back off.”</p><p>She pulled the last bit of water she could from the big man without freeing him to freeze the cowboy.</p><p>To her frustration, the man jumped to the side avoiding the attack, and flashed her another greasy grin. </p><p>“Oh please, I’ve seen that move before. You can’t freeze m-” He was frozen for the back as she boomeranged the water back to her hitting him in his blind spot.</p><p>Meanwhile, group B, which seemed to consist of the two unfrozen people closest to her watched the doorway for any sign of movement.</p><p>Just as he had seen Ming-Hua do, he entered the tent from the other side. Without any water nearby to bend he steeled himself and bent the blood of the closest member to him, having them draw their spear and change their ally.</p><p>They cried out in surprisingly genuine anguish. “NO LEE! I knew you would betray me, betray us! But not like this!”</p><p>“What are you talking about? I’m being controlled! One of them is probably a bloodbender.”</p><p>The first man gave a heavy blush as he disarmed his friend and pushed them to the ground, only to be subdued himself.</p><p>The pair began to feel that they might win this before both were sent flying by a synchronized slab of earth to the gut. The Dai Lee made their entrance.</p><p>The leader of their group entered with a slow clap catching the attention of the three Red Monsoons still able to fight, Amon, and Ming-Hua. </p><p>Behind him, a single associate carried a heavily bound and gagged Zaheer, and an equally restrained P’Li in far worse shape.</p><p>“Is Kuma here?”</p><p>Lee turned his head cautiously to respond. “No, he said he didn’t trust us to be able to handle this on our own so he left Hao in charge to do something.”</p><p>“Can I assume by the fact that the idiot hasn’t spoken up that he’s out of commission?”</p><p>“I mean yeah, but he can still probably hear you. The ice isn’t covering his ears.” Said Lee.</p><p>The grunt of the cowboy on the floor confirmed this idea.</p><p>“Can I assume you're the bag of sand who kidnapped my friends?” Shouted Ming-Hua.</p><p>As the man opened his mouth to answer she lobbed a ball of ice at the man as fast as she could.</p><p>He hopped back and erected a wall. The ice impacted it with a thud, shattering.</p><p>He followed up by splitting the wall in two and sending them to cover the holes the two had created in the tent.</p><p>“No disturbances please while I’m working.” He said passively before turning back to Lee.</p><p>“Do you know when Kuma will be back with his associates?”</p><p>“Sorry I left you waiting, old buddy.” A hairy, nearly shirtless, obviously water tribe man entered the tent behind him followed by three White Lotus, the other Dai Lee agent, and a struggling Korra under his arm.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Salvation Part 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Ming-Hua and Amon find themselves surrounded by enemies in a seemingly hopeless situation.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Characters;</p><p>Amon/ Noatak: A bloodbender, son of a crime boss, and student to a revolutionary essayist. He is seeking the answers to how we can solve big problems of inequality within a world which will not give anyone he deems as good or worthy the power to do so.</p><p>Ghazan: A lavabender and revolutionary member of the Red Lotus. He is the most relaxed of the group and seeks to prove the unity of all things in time.</p><p>Hao: A Red Monsoon firebender with a unique fashion sense who fancies himself a loose cannon who doesn't play by the rules. He seeks to define himself in this new age as a paragon of all that is man. A loser.</p><p>Korra: Newest Avatar kidnapped at a young age by a group of revolutionaries called the Red Lotus currently being guided by Zaheer.</p><p>Kuma: A high ranking member of the Red Monsoon gang from the southern water tribe calling the shots here. He was always hairier than the other kids in his class so he decided to own it.</p><p>Ming-Hua: A former White Lotus who lost her arms and has been haunted by the memory. She wants to form connections with those close to her but finds it difficult to connect to anyone in her group.</p><p>P'Li: A combustion bender, Red Lotus revolutionary, and lover of Zaheer. She has no passion for the revolution, but she has faith that it will lead the world to a better place.</p><p>Shǒu: A hand of the Dai Lee who has a large scar from a blade across both eyes blinding him. He has some unknown connection to combustion bending.</p><p>The Exile: A philosopher from the water tribe who spent most of her life in the earth kingdom contributing to the Ba Sing Se poverty essays. She lived with Amon for quite a few years.</p><p>Zaheer: The current face of the Red Lotus and a spiritual leader to all in its ranks. He cannot bend, but he is gifted in martial arts. He believes that freedom will aid the world and to this end, he has kidnapped the Avatar to try and show her a different path devoid of the idea of all past Avatars that order is the only path to balance. Here doesn't want to destroy the world to create chaos, he wants to tear down bad systems and hopefully replace them with new ones.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ming-Hua started in disbelief at the scene before her.</p><p>“What the hell is going on here? Pirates, philosophers, and secret police all working together! And how did you get Korra?” Shouted Ming-Hua into the silent night air.</p><p>“You’re pretty funny, the girl was easy to get just hiding in a bush. It seems whatever guard you left, abandoned her.” He turned to the White Lotus, “you gentlemen sure you need her? She’s kind of cute.”</p><p>Unnoticed by the four men, a now silent Lee rubbed his face in embarrassment to his bosses' far too aggressive flirting.</p><p>“We need the four to hold as prisoners to be sure they don’t kidnap the girl again.” Said the frontmost Lotus.</p><p>“To be clear about the situation to all involved. We get the woman you have on the ground over there. In exchange we’ll see to it you filthy pirates take the bloodbender. And finally, in exchange for their cooperation and generous donation to the Queen, the white hats will leave here with the four remaining and the girl.” Said Shǒu.</p><p>“The lady is all yours grandpa. Just don’t do anything in front of the men.” Commented the hairy man, Kuma.</p><p>Without a word, he turned to the woman on the floor and sent his stone hand to grip her throat and lift her up.</p><p>“For your continued treason over the years despite your numerous warnings, acts of slander against figures of the highest authority, and incitement of violence against the upper class the Earth Queen has sentenced you to death by hanging.” The arm slipped around her neck like a noose. She hung in the air as everyone in the room watched the life leave her eyes.</p><p>“You just killed her! You weren’t even going to give her a mock-trial!” Shouted Kuma in genuine rage.</p><p>“There is no need to raise your voice. I’ve kept my end of the deal, and I suggest you keep your lest the earth Queen needs to find a new company to handle her most important imports.” Said Shǒu.</p><p>Kuma clutched the girl tight and turned to the White Lotus. “And you wisemen are just going to let this murder happen right in front of you!”</p><p>“She was a great thinker in her time and we are with you in this. These acts will not go unpunished, but you and I don’t have the power to stop this right now. If we were to fight it would only end with us hanging as well, which would rid the world of any more acts of good we might commit in our lifetime.” Said the head Lotus.</p><p>Kuma backed up from both of them with a horrified look on his face. “What if it was this girl? What if they killed this harmless child right in front of your eyes, would you fight back then despite being powerless?”</p><p>“You're wasting your breath. Everyone here is simply doing what they believe is best because that’s exactly what systems do. Your own henchmen would have gone along with it without question if you hadn’t had an outburst.” Shouted Ming.</p><p>“Detain her,” Shǒu ordered the other two Dai Lee.</p><p>Just as they moved to do that, they let out cries of pain and jumped back.</p><p>In seconds the ground was entirely red.</p><p>Ming, Amon, and the three Red Monsoons were left alone on a cramped island while the rest had retreated to the outer rim. The three had also managed to drag their friends including Hao onto the island with them.</p><p>Shǒu’s face blanked as he tried to comprehend what he was looking at.</p><p>From the roof, a long-haired man dove creating a black stone island from which he began his assault.</p><p>"Sorry about that I-" Ming stopped him.</p><p>"Don't worry, I trusted you."</p><p>he turned his attention away from her with a soft smirk. First, the two nameless Dai Lee were sent flying by lava balls.</p><p>As Shǒu threw his remaining earthen glove it was consumed by a wave of lava which washed over the whole group but was frozen in place by Ghazan himself around Kuma.</p><p>As Shǒu burned in the molten rock his grip on the exile loosened dropping her onto a patch of lava flash-cooled by water Ming-Hua had pulled from Hao.</p><p>Kuma jumped onto this stone wall and boosted himself further into the air off of it to grab the acrobatic rings in the ceiling from which Su had performed mere hours earlier.</p><p>Ghazan created an eruption to try and catch his foot, but the earth was unable to reach the desired height and fell back down lamely.</p><p>Ming-Hua began to try and strike them down but found herself at a loss for water.</p><p>Amon took another breath and began to lower Kuma into the lava before being stopped by an angry Ming-Hua.</p><p>“Stop, you’ll just drag Korra into the lava with him!” He let Kuma go with a grimace as he hopped out of the tent.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Salvation Part 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Ming chases down the man who took Korra while Amon deals with the death of a close friend with Zaheer and P'Li.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Characters;</p><p>Amon/ Noatak: A bloodbender, son of a crime boss, and student to a revolutionary essayist. He is seeking the answers to how we can solve big problems of inequality within a world which will not give anyone he deems as good or worthy the power to do so.</p><p>Ghazan: A lavabender and revolutionary member of the Red Lotus. He is the most relaxed of the group and seeks to prove the unity of all things in time.</p><p>Hao: A Red Monsoon firebender with a unique fashion sense who fancies himself a loose cannon who doesn't play by the rules. He seeks to define himself in this new age as a paragon of all that is man. A loser.</p><p>Korra: Newest Avatar kidnapped at a young age by a group of revolutionaries called the Red Lotus currently being guided by Zaheer.</p><p>Kuma: A high ranking member of the Red Monsoon gang from the southern water tribe calling the shots here. He was always hairier than the other kids in his class so he decided to own it.</p><p>Ming-Hua: A former White Lotus who lost her arms and has been haunted by the memory. She wants to form connections with those close to her but finds it difficult to connect to anyone in her group.</p><p>P'Li: A combustion bender, Red Lotus revolutionary, and lover of Zaheer. She has no passion for the revolution, but she has faith that it will lead the world to a better place.</p><p>Shǒu: A hand of the Dai Lee who has a large scar from a blade across both eyes blinding him. He has some unknown connection to combustion bending.</p><p>The Exile: A philosopher from the water tribe who spent most of her life in the earth kingdom contributing to the Ba Sing Se poverty essays. She lived with Amon for quite a few years.</p><p>Zaheer: The current face of the Red Lotus and a spiritual leader to all in its ranks. He cannot bend, but he is gifted in martial arts. He believes that freedom will aid the world and to this end, he has kidnapped the Avatar to try and show her a different path devoid of the idea of all past Avatars that order is the only path to balance. Here doesn't want to destroy the world to create chaos, he wants to tear down bad systems and hopefully replace them with new ones.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>With Shǒu being fossilized under the now cooled lava, and the rest of the enemies trapped in igneous prisons Ming-Hua was able to untie Zaheer and P’Li.</p><p>Zaheer carried her because P’Li still hadn’t woken up.</p><p>“Sure would be handy to have a combustion bender right now.” Said Ming-Hua.</p><p>“Well we don’t, and that stone won’t hold the Lotus forever. They know where we live now so we’ll have to move to the next town.” Zaheer then turned to Ming-Hua to give orders.</p><p>“You can deal with him right?”</p><p>She nodded and ran out of the tent to give the man chase.</p><p>It took her a minute to catch up with Kuma, but he made it easy by stopping in a forest clearing and tossing the girl onto the floor, and putting his foot on her back holding her down.</p><p>“I know you're out their lady, but I can’t just give her to you. So let's settle this the old fashioned way.</p><p>Ming-Hua exited the woods with a dark grin.</p><p>“I thought you’d never ask.” She took her stance and spun, drawing water from the trees and plant life to create her arms.</p><p>“Neat trick with the arms, but I’ve never been the best waterbender.” He removed a large metal great club from his waist and slammed it into the mud.</p><p>With a single quick movement, he pulled it up again coating it in muddy water and flash freezing it to change into sharp spikes.</p><p>Meanwhile, Amon was comforting his injured friend on the floor. “It’s okay. Their gone so you’ll be fine as-”</p><p>“I thought I was the one who gave lectures.”</p><p>He stopped talking.</p><p>“Now listen close. I’ve got something that might interest you is from the northern water tribe and all.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“When I was a young girl, I met a man in my tribe who shaped my understanding of the world. He was the one who told me how to flood the libraries in which all the spiritual texts were kept.” The exile spat desperately.</p><p>“What are you talking about? You said you didn’t even remember anyone.”</p><p>“He rarely used it, but he said his name was Unalaq.”</p><p>“You mean the leader of the tribe was your teacher?”</p><p>“Well he wasn’t the leader when I studied under him, he was just a loser.”</p><p>Zaheer’s head turned at this revelation. “Unalaq? How long ago was this.”</p><p>“About twenty. Maybe a little more.”</p><p>“That was also about the time he joined the Lotus. I’ve got a bad feeling about this, but we don’t have any time for it now.” Said Zaheer turned to leave with a thought-filled Ghazan.</p><p>P’Li stirred on Zaheer’s back and stood up on newborn legs.</p><p>“I feel like I was hit by a stampede of ostrich-turkeys.” She said through a wheezing cough.</p><p>“Why are you telling me? I don’t get it.”</p><p>“It has become clear that you might not be able to study under me for the foreseeable future. So if you ever find yourself lost, I would advise you to seek Unalaq out and use my name. He still owes me a favor for destroying the texts.”</p><p>“Why won’t I be able to study with you?”</p><p>“Do not act innocent. You and I both know what is happening here and that neither of us has the power to stop it.”</p><p>“I’m a waterbender, I might be able to heal your wounds.”</p><p>“You're not a healer.” She turned her head to each of the others present. “I doubt any of you are.”</p><p>Zaheer gave a nod of confirmation.</p><p>“Is it not funny,” She began to muse, “this room is filled with a powerful lavabender and bloodbender. You spend your whole life becoming powerful to do one thing, only to find yourself powerless in the face of the important things.”</p><p>“I won’t let you die.” Amon began to weep over her. “Please. I’m scared to lose you.”</p><p>“Death is only as tragic as you make it out to be.” The exile cradled his head on her shoulder and gave him a warm smile.</p><p>“How do you do that?” A frustrated P’Li stepped forward.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“You’re dying, but you feel no fear or sadness for yourself. You just sit there and recite wisdom.” Said P’Li through gritted teeth.</p><p>“I’ve done everything I could and lived with much fewer regrets than most. Your wounds tell me I will not be alone in confronting death today though.”</p><p>“Korra was in trouble, I had to do something.”</p><p>“You left behind rationality and regret. You were willing to die for her escape.”</p><p>Ming-Hua drained another tree to fire projectiles at him. </p><p>He deflected and weaved through them expertly. As the water splashed across it, he performed his dance with it and solidified another layer around it, which shattered against a tree where Ming-Hua’s head had once been.</p><p>Her relief was short-lived as she went soaring backward from his follow-up uppercut to her chest. She ragdolled backward before landing against a stump leaving splinters in her back.</p><p>She was about to collapse from the pain before seeing Korra stand up behind him. She took her stance and lifted a shaky ball of water up for an attack.</p><p>Ming-Hua grimaced through her bloodied face causing Kuma to wince for a second.</p><p>“Catch!” She drained the log behind her to create a jet of water aiming for Kuma’s chest.</p><p>He easily sidestepped it before being pushed face-first into the mud. Behind him Korra stood with a defiant expression, fist extended.</p><p>Her expression quickly changed as she realized what she had done.</p><p>“I did it! I bent water!”</p><p>Kuma stood up again facing Korra. “Goddamnit, I’ll-” he was cut off by another jet of water from behind.</p><p>“Eyes of the kid you creep.” Said Ming-Hua, through bloody teeth.</p><p>He spun to try and hit her. She ducked and fired a jet of water, pushing him back to Korra, who deflected the stream back at him with another punch.</p><p>The pair then proceeded to bounce the water back and forth as he failed to deflect attacks from both sides until he fell down, unable to fight and out of balance from all the water in his ear. </p><p>"Hey, you're pretty good at this kid."</p><p>"I'm not a kid, I'm eight!"</p><p>"The fact that you're denying it proves me right."</p><p>Amon closed her with a heavy sigh. Zaheer found himself unable to shake his encounter in the spirit world years earlier after they had just kidnapped Korra.</p><p>“Would you like to come with us? We can help you defend yourself from those pirates if you need it. There should be a ferry to take you up north in the fire nation, where we're headed.”</p><p>“Zaheer! Are you serious?” P’Li asked.</p><p>“Are you?” Checked Amon.</p><p>“Of course.” He wondered to himself why this was so unusual.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Turns out my conclusion was way too long and took way longer than I was planning.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. A Lesson in Jings</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>In this chapter, I explore the philosophy of jings and how applicable it is to the wider world through Korra and Zaheer. In particular, I try to explore the pros and cons of positive jing.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Characters;</p><p>Amon/ Noatak: A bloodbender, son of a crime boss, and student to a revolutionary essayist. He is seeking the answers to how we can solve big problems of inequality within a world which will not give anyone he deems as good or worthy the power to do so.</p><p>Ghazan: A lavabender and revolutionary member of the Red Lotus. He is the most relaxed of the group and seeks to prove the unity of all things in time.</p><p>Korra: Newest Avatar kidnapped at a young age by a group of revolutionaries called the Red Lotus currently being guided by Zaheer.</p><p>Ming-Hua: A former White Lotus who lost her arms and has been haunted by the memory. She wants to form connections with those close to her but finds it difficult to connect to anyone in her group.</p><p>P'Li: A combustion bender, Red Lotus revolutionary, and lover of Zaheer. She has no passion for the revolution, but she has faith that it will lead the world to a better place.</p><p>Zaheer: The current face of the Red Lotus and a spiritual leader to all in its ranks. He cannot bend, but he is gifted in martial arts. He believes that freedom will aid the world and to this end, he has kidnapped the Avatar to try and show her a different path devoid of the idea of all past Avatars that order is the only path to balance. Here doesn't want to destroy the world to create chaos, he wants to tear down bad systems and hopefully replace them with new ones.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She took her stance and pushed forward with all her might.</p><p>“I think I saw it move.”</p><p>“Really!”</p><p>He flicked his hand quickly, causing her to fall flat on her face. He laughed harder than he should have.</p><p>Korra got up and gave him a nasty look.</p><p>This only made him smile wider.</p><p>She looked away, embarrassed, and got up.</p><p>“I don’t get why it's not working!” She slammed her foot on the ground and punched the air, trying to move the rock for the billionth time that day.</p><p>Ghazan settled down and examined her form.</p><p>“You're not stable enough. Your stance is weak and you're too easy to move... emotionally I mean.”</p><p>“But when I got waterbending it was about making sure I was barely stable.”</p><p>“Which is why it's not waterbending. Every nation has its own philosophy and approach to art.”</p><p>“Maybe I'm doing this wrong. When did you first get waterbending?”</p><p>“When Ming tossed an attack at me, expecting me to deflect it, I stopped thinking and just did it.”</p><p>“So you're a tactile learner then, that’s perfect. I just so happen to be as well.”</p><p>“What does that mean?” She gulped.</p><p>He got up from his lounging pose cracking his bones from his shoulders to his toes.</p><p>“GeT ReAdy Kid!”</p><p>She watched as he proceeds to jump off the ground and slammed back down, losing rocks from the earth and knocked them away with every part of his body at high speeds.</p><p>She couldn’t even begin to hope to keep up with it.</p><p>Eventually, he slowed down and slammed his foot into the earth again, this time sending a tremor through it and melting it around him.</p><p>Korra jumped away as the sand became lava around him. </p><p>She flashed him an expression far too common for the depths of agitation it conveyed.</p><p>“Don’t worry. I’m going easy on you.”</p><p>Korra let a cry of frustration and stomped away.</p><p>Ghazan fell back to his shady spot beneath an earth tent he had pitched and lounged back into position. </p><p>Without much of a delay, the lava he had created cooled off in the desert sun and became stone once more.</p><p>She took a spot next to Zaheer.</p><p>“Why can’t I earthbend?” She asked him, frustration overshadowing her voice.</p><p>“You can, but I don’t think Ghazan is the best earthbending teacher for you. He’s a bit odd as earthbenders go.”</p><p>“You mean the lavabending thing he does?”</p><p>“Well yes, but it's a bit more complicated than that.”</p><p>Amon, without stirring from his fake sleep, eavesdropped onto their conversation with great intent.</p><p>Just then, Ghazan stood back up. “We’ve got company.”</p><p>As quickly as he gave the warning, Zaheer had Korra in his arms, and an elephant scorpion burst out of the sand and just barely missed Ghazan with its stinger.</p><p>Zaheer fled to a safe distance with her, P’Li, and Ming as the scorpion attacked. </p><p>Amon himself pretended to be awoken and joined them with a minor delay. He still masked his interest in their conversation, however.</p><p>“Aren’t you going to help?”</p><p>This got a chuckle out of both of them.</p><p>“There isn’t much a waterbender, a combustion bender high out of her mind on painkilling medicine, and an air nation enthusiast can do against an elephant scorpion in the desert. Besides, he won’t need it.”</p><p>She must have seemed worried still as Zaheer leaned down to comfort her.</p><p>“The reason he is so odd is because of how he bends the earth. For countless generations, it was accepted fact that the greatest earthbenders are masters of neutral jing.” He turned to her, “Do you remember what neutral jing is?”</p><p>She wracked her brain for a moment before answering. “It's waiting and listening right? Like being reactive to an opponent.”</p><p>“That’s correct, but it’d be more accurate to say it's actively choosing to do nothing until the best possible moment to do it. We are practicing neutral jing right now by letting Ghazan handle it.”</p><p>“But we aren’t fighting it.”</p><p>“Jing isn’t about fighting, it's a state of mind that ancient benders learned was very applicable to bending."</p><p>"So the scorpion itself is practicing positive jing by attacking us? Wouldn't it be better if everyone practiced neutral jing all the time?"</p><p>"That's very observant, but you can't force your beliefs on everyone else. Besides, neutral jing has its own problems."</p><p>"Like what?" Korra asked.</p><p>"Inaction and apathy allow the greatest evils to take root. Sitting back is all well and good, but if all of us chose to do nothing about this scorpion, then we would all be dead, and there would be no ideal time to strike.”</p><p>“I think I understand what you're saying, but I don’t think there are a bunch of elephant scorpions hiding anywhere else in the world other than this desert.”</p><p>“The scorpion is just a metaphor. The threat is more often than not a person with power. Which leads me into the solution to neutral jing.”</p><p>“Solution?”</p><p>“On top of neutral jing, there are about eighty-four other states one can have. We practiced negative jing by retreating just now. Ghazan is a master of positive jing or the principle of being proactive and ambitious.”</p><p>“So I practiced positive jing when I used waterbending to beat that pirate the other night?”</p><p>"You're a master of positive jing. But you need to be careful with it. Always looking for a new horizon is a very dangerous mindset. Do you remember anyone from history who had this idea?"</p><p>Korra thought for a moment. "Ozai I think. Right?" She looked up to him for confirmation.</p><p>“Correct!" Zaheer gave her a practiced smile.</p><p>"It isn't a coincidence that this is also the jing drove every conqueror in history and is drawn from for most firebending."</p><p>"Then firebenders are bad?"</p><p>Zaheer was appalled at this conclusion.</p><p>"No, not at all. For as long as history has been written down fire benders have been the most technologically advanced nation. They have had the best medicine for curing diseases, the best schools for teaching children, and the highest life expectancy. Positive jing isn't the mindset of conquest, but of ambition.</p><p>“But why should we ever use it if it leads to so much fighting?”</p><p>“It’s easy to say being proactive and ambitious is bad because of those who have relied on it, but this doesn’t mean they are wrong. The only way things ever change for the better is through the practice of positive jing. The first person to create fire practiced positive jing and allowed you and me to stand here today."</p><p>"But we have a good enough society now, so why do we need to use it anymore?"</p><p>"Because the world is not good enough. Monarchs and leaders exploit the majority of people in the world and work them to death while never working a day in their life. There is nothing wrong with change, you just need to learn to use negative jing just as often to take a step back and make sure what you are doing is really good.”</p><p>In the distance, Ghazan had created a pool of lava and dismembered the beast with concentrated eruptions of magma all around it as it melted in the molten sand.</p><p>The beast let out a cry of pain and went in for one final stab Ghazan jumped out of the way, but not far enough.</p><p>The beast was stopped by an ice boomerang from Ming. This allowed him to finish it off with a magma spike through its chest and stinger.</p><p>“And sometimes you need to be proactive and intervene directly.”</p><p>Amon gave no intention he had heard them, but something about that lecture spoke to him.</p><p>His friend had often talked about her belief that the only things that would ever change would be through revolution.</p><p>By this lens, both positive and negative change came from the same place. Ambition and dissatisfaction.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I tried to make this shorter. I added one-hundred words.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. New Companion</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Amon and Zaheer have a debate while o a ferry to the fire nation.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Going off schedule because I felt like writing the next chapter today.</p><p> </p><p>Characters;</p><p>Amon/ Noatak: A bloodbender, son of a crime boss, and student to a revolutionary essayist. He is seeking the answers to how we can solve big problems of inequality within a world which will not give anyone he deems as good or worthy the power to do so.</p><p>Korra: Newest Avatar kidnapped at a young age by a group of revolutionaries called the Red Lotus currently being guided by Zaheer.</p><p>Zaheer: The current face of the Red Lotus and a spiritual leader to all in its ranks. He cannot bend, but he is gifted in martial arts. He believes that freedom will aid the world and to this end, he has kidnapped the Avatar to try and show her a different path devoid of the idea of all past Avatars that order is the only path to balance. Here doesn't want to destroy the world to create chaos, he wants to tear down bad systems and hopefully replace them with new ones.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“What did you want to talk about?” Asked Zaheer.</p><p>“You’re friends said you were pretty into philosophy and politics, I’d like to get your perspective on something.” Said Amon.</p><p>“Sure, what do you want to talk about?” He opened his eyes and turned to the young man.</p><p>“I’ve been struggling to deal with this idea for a while. My friend helped me with it quite a bit but honestly debating with her was incredibly… taxing. What do you think we can actually do about the problems in this world?”</p><p>“Can you be more specific?”</p><p>“Monarchs hold absolute rule, and there doesn’t seem to be anything we can do to make these places better.”</p><p>“Why do you want to tear down their government?” Asked Zaheer without malice.</p><p>“No one chose to put them in charge, and all they’ve done is to make life worse for their citizens.”</p><p>“It’s citizens, you mean the wealthy elite in the innermost ring?” Asked Zaheer.</p><p>“No! I’m talking about everyone else who does all the actual labor to allow the wealthy elite to live there.”</p><p>“So your problem isn’t with a monarchy, it’s with capitalism.”</p><p>“Of course I have problems with the system. But I hate the queen as well.”</p><p>“Really? To me, it sounded like your problem was with the unfairness of the system, not the figurehead at the top.”</p><p>“Of course I know she’s bad, I was there when Dai Lee kidnapped you and your friend.”</p><p>“So your problem is with the system and the secret police?”</p><p>“Why are you taking her side!” Amon raised his voice, so he was practically shouting.</p><p>“I’m not. This is how you get your answers. You say your position, I question it, and you defend it.” Zaheer raised his voice as well.</p><p>“Well then, what do you want me to say! She’s bad, okay!” Amon raised his arms to his head in frustration.</p><p>“Of course she’s bad, but what I’m getting at is that she isn’t any worse right now than any other monarch on earth. Anyone with power will abuse it.”</p><p>“But that’s wrong. The fire lord has made great steps towards a better nation for her people, and the one before her brought a new era of peace.” Said Amon.</p><p>“After working with the avatar to remove his father from the throne. The same father who carried on the legacy of a man who committed near genocide of the air nomads. My point is nothing would stop the fire lord from turning around and killing the last surviving air nomads!”</p><p>“Yes, there is. She has worked diligently to reduce the power of her position and make her country more democratic.”</p><p>“But she is still the unelected Queen of a nation in which she could repeal all of these laws at any time. She has the power so she could abuse it. The only way anything will ever get better is the complete abolition of private ownership and therefore the forfeit of power.”</p><p>“Private ownership has nothing to do with it. The problem is with the system itself. For the world to get better, all we can do is eliminate the system of capitalism and money. Only when people live in a system which does not incentivize the abuse of power for profit then will things get better.” Said Amon, reciting a familiar idea he had picked up when living with his friend.</p><p>“I don’t disagree with your broad ideas here, but what I’m trying to get at is your refusal to hold the people in power to blame.” Said Zaheer, lowering his voice.</p><p>“You can’t blame the people in power now for the system they live in.”</p><p>“No, but you can expect them to do better. And doing better doesn't mean paving the way for the next tyrant.”</p><p>“The only way things will get better is if those in power use it for the people. In order to fix this system, we need to use its rules.” And with that, Amon left the room in a huff.</p><p>“Can you please not shout like that in the future?” Asked a yawning Korra. “I think I almost reached the spirit world.”</p><p>“I thought you were meditating?”</p><p>“I was.” She rubbed her eyes and stretched.</p><p>“I’m sorry for waking you up, I was just having a frustrating conversation with our new companion.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The members of the Red Lotus, excluding P'Li (for now), belong to different schools of anarchy because it's not a monolith. In the series, Zaheer was probably closest to a really uninformed anarcho-primitivist (I'm not trying to bash that school of thought. For the most part, I'm pretty uninformed of primitivism ideas and my problem is with Zaheer being uninformed.) In this work, all of the Red Lotus members will be a stand-in for a classical era school of anarchist thought. I want to do classical era ideas because it fits in with the time period of before communism was formally established. Zaheer is an anarcho-collectivist. Amon most closely fits into a school of Leninism right now but is leaning a little higher on the compass than Lenin did.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Old Friends</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A hurting P'Li comes to grips with her emotional fallout from her perceived failures.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Characters;</p><p>Amon/ Noatak: A bloodbender, son of a crime boss, and student to a revolutionary essayist. He is seeking the answers to how we can solve big problems of inequality within a world which will not give anyone he deems as good or worthy the power to do so.</p><p>Ming-Hua: A former White Lotus who lost her arms and has been haunted by the memory. She wants to form connections with those close to her but finds it difficult to connect to anyone in her group.</p><p>P'Li: A combustion bender, Red Lotus revolutionary, and lover of Zaheer. She has no passion for the revolution, but she has faith that it will lead the world to a better place.</p><p>Zaheer: The current face of the Red Lotus and a spiritual leader to all in its ranks. He cannot bend, but he is gifted in martial arts. He believes that freedom will aid the world and to this end, he has kidnapped the Avatar to try and show her a different path devoid of the idea of all past Avatars that order is the only path to balance. Here doesn't want to destroy the world to create chaos, he wants to tear down bad systems and replace them with better ones.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and felt the sensation travel through her body and out of her forehead. As it began to take form, she blasted it away from her and bounced it into the Dai Lee agent. </p><p>Thump, thump.</p><p>Her heart beat faster.</p><p>Thump, thump, thump.</p><p>She was pressed against the wall in a manner of seconds.</p><p>She broke out of her memories with a gasp. She was incredibly sweaty, and the bandages weren’t helping anything.</p><p>“Leave me alone. I don’t want to help you, you little creep.” Ming-Hua called out from the hallway and hastily entered P’Li’s room.</p><p>She tried to close the door, but Amon was able to slip in after her before she could kick it closed.</p><p>“I just need someone to back up what I’m saying against Zaheer.”</p><p>“Go find someone else then.”</p><p>“Why can’t you help me?”</p><p>“I don’t like you.”</p><p>She cleared her throat. It felt like she had scarred it in the explosion.</p><p>They both turned to the near mummified P’Li.</p><p>“Sorry, P’Li. I’ll get this one out of your hair.”</p><p>She began to speak, running a fork down her windpipe.</p><p>“Could you help me, Ming?”</p><p>“Of course, P’Li.” She turned to the man behind her. “I’ll take you to someone who can help you after this if you are quiet, and don’t interrupt.”</p><p>He nodded and leaned against the wall.</p><p>“Chakras right, which one are you stuck on?”</p><p>“Water.”</p><p>“I’m a bit of an expert at dealing with that one.”</p><p>P’Li tried to chuckle but was unable to.</p><p>Ming sat down next to her and spoke to her softly.</p><p>“Can you tell me what is going on?”</p><p>“I failed to protect her, and in the process, I nearly killed myself.” Her throat was on fire, but she couldn’t care less. “I was afraid. I’m ashamed of being afraid. I’m wracked with guilt over letting her get taken anyway.”</p><p>“How is it we are supposed to make up for our failures. I let my whole family down when I joined the Red Monsoons. But going to prison didn’t reform me. I talk a big game about my family rehabilitating me, but, two months after leaving prison, I went back to working for them.”</p><p>P’Li recalled when she had first met Ming-Hua. She held a grudge against her for a while before she actually sat down to talk with her.</p><p>She had been a daughter, a pirate, and a soldier. No doubt her life was exciting, but there was also no doubt in her mind, the two were sisters of circumstance.</p><p>Just like she had been turned into a weapon against the world, Ming-Hua had been trained as a proper lady as a child, but she had rebbelled. She became the muscle of some pirates, and she ended up as a soldier for the Lotus. </p><p>Wherever they went it seemed like the two were robbed of agency and used by someone else. </p><p>There was always another person to take advantage of the desperate, and in-kind, there will always be someone desperate to be taken advantage of.</p><p>“There is no way I can make up for how badly I fucked Ba Sing Se, just like there might not be a way for you to make up for failing her. But my advice to you is to let go, you went above and beyond what anyone else could have. It’s not your fault she is captured, it was ours.”</p><p>P’Li took a deep breath and returned to memory.<br/>
“You may be able to work your tricks on civilians, but I’ve dealt with enough of your kind to know how you work.”</p><p>What was he talking about? </p><p>She had been separated from her father, the only other combustion bender she had ever known, a long time ago. Even the man who had made her into a weapon of war had never mentioned another combustion bender.</p><p>“Right now I’m blocking your crown chakra. You require this to project the explosion anywhere but your face. You blow up at all, and you’ll only be hurting yourself.”</p><p>He even understood how her bending worked. Who was he?</p><p>If she stood still he would capture her, he would use her like she had been used. But she might find another combustion bender, maybe more.</p><p>“Stay put.”</p><p>She was nothing but a dog to him. He made that clear in his delivery. Had they been dogs as well, she wondered to herself.</p><p>But he was dead now. She might never learn what he meant, and there is no way she could have changed that.</p><p>Her eyes burned as Korra stood up and shielded Amon. </p><p>If anyone understood what terror looked like, it was P’Li. </p><p>She had seen her father strike fear into the hearts of others when he bent. She had seen the effect Gan Li had on those under him. She had known fear herself whenever they were in the same room.</p><p>She was afraid. Zaheer had often preached about selfless duty over all else, but when it came down to it he just couldn’t do it. Even in their talk about legacy and finality he had kept a moral distance from everything. </p><p>Perhaps detaching himself had helped him deal with the constant danger of the world. Her father had acted the same way.</p><p>But she couldn’t do that no matter how hard she meditated. She conquered death not through distance, but acceptance. So perhaps she could deal with this guilt the same way.</p><p>She took a deep breath and created an explosion powerful enough to buy time for Korra.</p><p>She would save her legacy at any cost.</p><p>She opened her eyes as far as possible and shared a look with her friend so deep she squirmed in discomfort.</p><p>“Thanks for the help Ming, I mean it.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Recollection</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Ghazan has a talk with Amon.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Amon/ Noatak: A bloodbender, son of a crime boss, and student to a revolutionary essayist. He is seeking the answers to how we can solve big problems of inequality within a world which will not give anyone he deems as good or worthy the power to do so.</p><p>Ghazan: A lavabender and revolutionary member of the Red Lotus. He is the most relaxed of the group and seeks to prove the unity of all things in time.</p><p>Ming-Hua: A former White Lotus who lost her arms and has been haunted by the memory. She wants to form connections with those close to her but finds it difficult to connect to anyone in her group.</p><p>Zaheer: The current face of the Red Lotus and a spiritual leader to all in its ranks. He cannot bend, but he is gifted in martial arts. He believes that freedom will aid the world and to this end, he has kidnapped the Avatar to try and show her a different path devoid of the idea of all past Avatars that order is the only path to balance. Here doesn't want to destroy the world to create chaos, he wants to tear down bad systems and hopefully replace them with new ones.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ming popped her head into the room with a worrying amount of saturation in her smile. She was faking it, and he knew it. The question in his mind was, what did she hope to accomplish with this feat.</p><p>“Ghazan.” Her voice was like silk on sandpaper. “I’d like you to do a favor for me.”</p><p>“Uh,” he began. He was never the most adept at speaking or articulating his thoughts. He scratched his head.</p><p>“I guess.”</p><p>“Great. Look after the twerp.” She opened the door and tossed him inside.</p><p>Before he could protest, she had already escaped.</p><p>“Can you help me with something?”</p><p>Ghazan sighed.</p><p>“You shouldn’t be so serious all the time kid, you’ll just make people uncomfortable.”</p><p>“Like your friend?” He asked.</p><p>“Yeah. You don’t want to end up like her. I like her, but she’s got some issues to work through.”</p><p>“Doesn’t everybody?”</p><p>“I like to think I’ve got a pretty empty plate. Which makes me uniquely qualified to help you right?”</p><p>“I don’t understand Zaheer’s ideas. I tried to talk to him but…” Started Amon.</p><p>“He acted like it was a debate and shut you down right?” Finished Ghazan.</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“That’s just how Zaheer is. He loves discussing that stuff with people, and he’s already got all the material he can out of us.”</p><p>“So all of you have debated him as well? How can you stand him?” Asked Amon.</p><p>“We all used to debate each other back when his mentor Xai Bau was still around, and the old guy would always step in for whoever was lagging behind.”</p><p>“Xai Bau? I feel like I’ve heard that name before.”</p><p>Ghazan chuckled. “Guess the world is a pretty small place. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had written some essays for Ba Sing Se.”</p><p>Amon rolled the name over in his mouth, trying to find its origin. Was it a book? An essay? Maybe his friend had said it at some point?</p><p>“Who is he?”</p><p>“When I knew him he was a grand Lotus, although it isn’t much you could say about him that would surprise me.”</p><p>“No, I swear I know that name from somewhere.”</p><p>“As I said, he probably wrote something at some point.”</p><p>That’s when it hit him.</p><p>“When I was little, I lived in the northern water tribe with my brother and parents. Before I even developed waterbending talents, an unusual outsider visited the village. He claimed his name was Xai Bau and said something about a spirit.”</p><p>Ghazan’s brow furrowed. “That couldn't have been him, the man died before you were born.”</p><p>“He had a red and black tunic with a red lotus sewn onto the back without much skill. He claimed where he was going was dangerous and never came back.”</p><p>“That doesn’t make sense. He vanished at the end of a big battle, but not even a shirshu was able to find him. We all just assumed ascended to the spirit world and left without telling anyone.”</p><p>“So who was he exactly?”</p><p>“He was a pacifist who sought the best path for the world but started to hate where we had taken his ideas. Always said we were too violent.”</p><p>“Why was he fighting in a battle if he was a pacifist?”</p><p>“I don’t think he ever intentionally hurt anyone outside of neutralizing them with a technique he learned from the Kyoshi warriors. Although that might be another exaggeration on Zaheer’s part.”</p><p>“I’m not surprised Zaheer exaggerates.”</p><p>Ghazan raised an eyebrow at him. </p><p>“You should be, Zaheer is a stick in the mud for everything else, but to this day swears Xai Bua had a whole handful of random superpowers.”</p><p>“Superpowers? Like flying?”</p><p>“No like super strength and invulnerability.”</p><p>“That is weird. I might be able to give myself some form of enhanced strength if I bent myself, but it would be at the price of articulation and the ability to move. It would be impossible to fight like that long term and waste my energy.”</p><p>“That, and Xai Bau wasn’t a bender. The best he was capable of that I ever saw was some high-level chi blocking. But I doubt you wanted to know about Xai Bau. So how can I help you with Zaheer.” Ghazan shifted the subject.</p><p>“I got into an argument with him, but he refuses to hear what I believe. He just keeps preaching his ideas without listening.</p><p>Ghazan stayed silent to listen to him.</p><p>“It’s frustrating because I know he isn’t stupid. He sees the same problem I do, but has come to the wrong conclusion of how to solve it.”</p><p>“What do you mean by the wrong conclusion?”</p><p>“He thinks the way to solve these issues is by getting rid of power altogether, but what he wants will never happen. The only way we can fix the broken system is by using politics to fix it.”</p><p>“I won’t say you're wrong, but I’m going to warn you. The belief that you know what's best for everyone is dangerous.” Said Ghazan.</p><p>“Everyone would agree if they had seen what I had, the only problem is exposure and education.”</p><p>“Exposure, you're a child. You haven’t seen the world, you’ve read about it from a sheet of paper.” Said Ghazan.</p><p>“The problem is the world is full of people capitalizing on the problems with disinformation for money. The push for the preservation of tradition serves only to benefit the wealthy elite.”</p><p>“Again, I agree with the problems you're pointing out, but the way you're going about it is all wrong. You need to understand there is more than one answer to a problem. You or I are not the end-all, be-all of the situation.”</p><p>Amon opened his mouth to say something but never did. </p><p>He should have known the others wouldn’t get it. They had all been trained by the same person, of course, they believed the same thing.</p>
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<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Enrollment</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The group arrives in the Fire Nation. Korra has questions about a group of fire benders.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Characters;</p><p>Amon/ Noatak: A bloodbender, son of a crime boss, and student to a revolutionary essayist. He is seeking the answers to how we can solve big problems of inequality within a world which will not give anyone he deems as good or worthy the power to do so.</p><p>Ghazan: A lavabender and revolutionary member of the Red Lotus. He is the most relaxed of the group and seeks to prove the unity of all things in time.</p><p>Korra: Newest Avatar kidnapped at a young age by a group of revolutionaries called the Red Lotus currently being guided by Zaheer. she is capable of low-level waterbending.</p><p>P'Li: A combustion bender, Red Lotus revolutionary, and lover of Zaheer. She has no passion for the revolution, but she has faith that it will lead the world to a better place. She is currently out of commission. The group has taken her to the fire nation to help her recover.</p><p>Zaheer: The current face of the Red Lotus and a spiritual leader to all in its ranks. He cannot bend, but he is gifted in martial arts. He believes that freedom will aid the world and to this end, he has kidnapped the Avatar to try and show her a different path devoid of the idea of all past Avatars that order is the only path to balance. Here doesn't want to destroy the world to create chaos, he wants to tear down bad systems and hopefully replace them with new ones.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“What are they doing?” Korra asked.</p><p>A group of firebenders toiled away in a group without much clothing.</p><p>“They’re learning the dancing dragon.” Remarked Zaheer without looking.</p><p>“Dancing dragon? What’s that? Asked Korra.</p><p>“You’ve seen how Ming bends right?”</p><p>“You mean how she doesn’t need to use her arms?” Guessed Korra.</p><p>“No. I mean how she uses tentacles made of water,” said Zaheer. “, that’s called the octopus form. It draws from octopi to be able to create a highly versatile bending form. Many such variations and forms exist all over the world, theirs is derived from the first firebenders, the dragons, making it the purest form of firebending.”</p><p>“Purest, what do mean by that?” Asked Korra.</p><p>“Honestly, it isn’t my area of expertise. If you're really curious about it, you should ask Ghazan. He’s an expert in the history of bending.”</p><p>So she did. Later that day, after they had found settled in a much nicer house than before, she asked Ghazan.</p><p>“Get that idea of purity out of your head. It’s just a thing people who haven’t met strangers say to justify their fear of others.”</p><p>“Oh, uh,” Korra had gotten used to being lectured on specific word choice by Zaheer, however, she had never expected it from Ghazan. “Okay, I guess.”</p><p>“The oldest form of firebending was learned by observing the dragons. I could try and explain it, but it would probably be better if you learned from them.”</p><p>“Wait! You mean I can take an actual lesson from them!” Korra jumped out of her seat with excitement.</p><p>“I don’t see why not. You’ve got to learn firebending eventually, so why not while we're in the fire nation.”</p><p>Ghazan turned around and yelled over his shoulder. “You don’t mind, do you P’Li?”</p><p>They heard an unintelligible grunt followed by a translation from Zaheer next to her.</p><p>“She said she doesn’t mind. We’ve got to get her to a doctor right away anyway.”</p><p>“Then let’s get going!” Korra ran to the door and began to leave.”</p><p>“Hold on Korra. We’ve got to get some clothes to avoid suspicion first.”</p><p>“Do we have to?”</p><p>“Afraid so, and we’re taking Amon with us as well.”</p><p>The teenager poked his nose out of the book when he heard his name with a great deal of confusion.</p><p>“What am I doing?”</p><p>“When we had our talk on the boat, I wasn’t really able to explain it very well. I want to bring you along so you can get an idea of what I was saying.” Explained Ghazan.</p><p>The clothing in the store had not been what Korra expected. The women's clothing was very tight and pretty. The men’s clothing was still tight, but at least it let her wear pants.</p><p>Apparently, it was the latest fashion from Republic city, and the fire nation was eating it up.</p><p>So they bought three sets of men’s suits, all as loose as possible.</p><p>The three of them bought unremarkable clothing, and Korra was given the fake name Lee to avoid suspicion. For his disguise, he insisted they call him Buuzian, whatever that meant.</p><p>“Hello, I’d like to sign my kids up for firebending lessons.”</p><p>The man who called himself master seemed extremely familiar to Ghazan, but he wasn’t able to understand why.</p><p>“Are you their father?” He asked.</p><p>“I couldn’t be prouder to be him. Their father, I mean.” He wrapped his arms around both of them and rustled Amon’s hair.</p><p>The master raised his eyebrows but decided to ignore the suspicion in his voice. After all, he had even seen a few kids pretend to be adults sometimes.</p><p>“Hey cut that out.” Amon tried to push him away, only to be greeted by a hearty, if obviously fake, laugh.</p><p>“You're here to take advantage of the free first lesson right?” The master asked.</p><p>“I wasn't aware that was an option, but I’d love to.”</p><p>They worked out the logistics, and the master sent Ghazan to the stands to observe his ‘kids’.</p><p>The master reached down to shake each of their hands. “Your names were Lee and Amon right? It’ll be my pleasure to teach each of you. You can call me master Zuko.”</p>
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<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Recoil</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Shady Shin teaches Mako and Bolin how to play pai sho.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Bolin: An earthbender youth who lost both parents at a young age. He has worked a few legal jobs for the Triple Threat Triad with his older brother.</p><p>Mako: A firebender youth who watched his father get killed by another firebender at a very young age. He works all the time to support his brother.</p><p>Shady Shin: A shady waterbender who is considered amongst the highest in the Triple Threat Triad. </p><p>Two-toed Ping: A firebender without much pull in the Triple Threat Triad who got his name for his extra toe on each foot.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He could feel all eyes on himself as he swaggered towards the little runts.</p><p>The larger one noticed him immediately and tensed up. The other one wasn't so observant and only looked up from his pet Fire Ferret after it was too late.</p><p>“How’s it going kids.” He flashed them a blindingly white grin causing them to squint.</p><p>“Hey, uh, Mr, um,” the younger one stumbled over his words for the proper vocabulary to address his elder, “Mr. Shin, Sir.”</p><p>He took a seat on the steps above them.</p><p>“Woah slow down. I’m not gonna put a hit out on you for using my street name.”</p><p>“I’m sorry about my brother sir. He, I mean we. Were warned by a guy with a red scarf that you were dangerous. He said if we didn’t watch our manners, you might have us killed.”</p><p>“I suppose I don’t mind a little respect.” Mused Shin.</p><p>The silence was broken by Bolin.</p><p>“Is there a reason you came to see us, uh sir?” He corrected himself quickly near the end, which Shin found hysterical.</p><p>“Last time I stopped by to have you run some numbers, you mentioned wanting to learn pai sho.”</p><p>Bolin’s face lit up like a candle. “Oh, this is great. Mako and I found a pai sho board in the dumpster the other day, but we didn’t know the rules so we had to make them up, sir.” He nearly forgot to add the sir leading to another bout of internal laughter from Shin.</p><p>“Well bring it out.” Shin knew the board was incomplete right away. It was missing quite a few pieces of little importance like the white lotus, but also a few major ones as well.</p><p>“You guys can’t play with this board. It’s missing too many parts. Luckily I brought my own.” Shin opened up his briefcase to reveal a brand new set.</p><p>“I’ve had this one too long, so I was going to toss it out, but I figured you kids would get better use out of it than the ones who live by my dumpster would.”</p><p>“I’m sorry sir, we can’t take this. There’s no way we could afford this.”</p><p>“Of course you couldn’t, that’s why it’s free. You’ll pay me back with trust.”</p><p>Mako didn’t buy it for a second but wasn’t going to turn down free stuff.</p><p>It turned out he didn’t even need to cheat, kids were chumps. He did have to correct them on a few strange rules that had made up in their head for some reason.</p><p>First, they thought the white dragon piece could fly and move as much as it wanted. Apparently, Bolin had won every game using it. </p><p>Next, he had to break the news to them that the objective was not to kill all your opponent's pieces but to create harmonies. And then he had to explain how that worked to them.</p><p>In a rare moment, Shin dropped his facade.</p><p>“When you’ve done what I have, for as long as I’ve done it you learn a few things. Problems don’t just go away when you put a hit out on them. Death leaves a mark and sticks with you.”</p><p>Mako tried to understand what he might have been implying with his voice but was interrupted by the sultry tones of Shady Shin.</p><p>“You lose.”</p><p>“What. That’s impossible. We just started.”</p><p>“Sorry kid, I don’t make the rules.” He did, however, make a few up.</p><p>“Well, I gotta scram. Red Monsoons have been making some idiotic moves on our turf, and I heard the Red Monsoon herself might even be in town behind it.”</p><p>“Goodbye, sir.” Bolin waved him off as Mako just bowed his head as respectful as always.</p><p>As Shin turned the corner, he caught a glimpse of a red scarf out of the corner of his eye.</p><p>“How long are you going to use those boys for your own ends? Maybe I should just tell them the real reason you're hanging out with them?”</p><p>Shin stepped away and slammed a nearby puddle into him like a wrecking ball. He froze the man to the wall and removed a knife from his belt.</p><p>“You won’t tell them a thing. Not if you like being called Two Toed Ping.”</p><p>The man began to sweat as the knife pushed against his throat.</p><p>“Noted.”</p>
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